Simpler Times
by Millz66
Summary: Loosely based around The Kissing Booth plot. A figure from Noah's past comes back into his life.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I do not own the Kissing Booth, all credit goes to Beth Reeks.**

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Every summer my life followed the same tune. Catch a plane back to LA, to spend some of my time with a few friends and the rest catching glimpse of him. LA also allowed me to escape from the chaos that is my usual life and fall back into simpler times. This year would be no different apart from one major thing; my ex-friend, ex-boyfriend, ex-everything, Noah Flynn.

* * *

I arrived at LAX before the end of school to give myself a few days to collect myself before the possibility I'd need Noah around the city. I went straight to a little house I brought in the hills with the money from my 1st few jobs. The house was a comfortably modern 4 bed place with floor to ceiling glass panels and hints of my favourite color blue dotted around. This place was my sanctuary where I come (unknown to Noah) to get away from the 1 million miles per hour my life went. Only a few people knew I spent some of my time where, the rest including Noah were in the dark, and I'd like to keep it that way.

It was about 12pm on the last day of school and I decided to take a drive to the parking lot just to view from the side the kids coming out of school, what I should be doing in a 'normal' alternative reality. I pulled up at the back of the parking lot in a new car that had been delivered to my house this morning by my boss and friend, Sam. The car allowed me to wait for Noah without the possibility of anyone noticing me, not that they'd recognise me anyway; I hadn't seen most of the people at this school since middle school and now they're all seniors heading to college next fall.

I waited till 12:30pm when the half-day finished, all the kids started to stream out the front entrance of the building. Amongst the crowd I saw what had become of my childhood best friend, he was even taller than before, his looks had certainly stayed with him and he hadn't cut his hair for months. I thought to myself that the longer hair made him look more defensive that his previous short cut, _maybe I'd caused that spurge in defence?_ He was walking out with a group of girls, looked like sophomores to me, clinging to his every word he said and his shirt trying to desperately hold onto him.

By the time he's made it over to his bike, the girls had dispersed, and Lee and Elle appeared getting into Lee Mustang, ' _I need to get myself one of those beauties'_ I thought. I watched as Noah looked around the parking lot, first a protective look checking Lee and Elle were leaving and then a confused look coming off his face when he settled on my car. _He couldn't have noticed me, right?_ I began internally panicking that he'd seen me before I had a chance to think of what to say to him.

 _"_ _Just wait, I'll buy myself a Jeep for my first car, while your trying to kill yourself on a bike." I said with the upmost seriousness in my voice._

 _"_ _Yeah right, the day your parents allow you to get one of those" he said pointing to the magazine picture "that'll be the day that I enjoy that nasty orange stuff Lee and Elle love so much!" He started gaging at the thought of the liquid permanently in their fridge._

The confusion of his face towards the car lasted seconds before it changed to a slight smile, a smile only the ones closest to him would see. I began to wonder if he was replaying the conversation in his head as I did in mine.

A few seconds of him glancing at the car passed and got his helmet out to put it on before a small group of cheerleaders walked up to him twirling their hair. I thought this was the perfect excuse to drop him a text.

I quickly wrote out a text that would sure mess with him before I put the car in drive and tapped send just as I pulled away.

Noah:

 _I'm surrounded by these cheerleaders almost throwing themselves onto my but all I can think about is the car I just saw in the parking lot. It was the car that Olivia had desperately wanted when she passed her test, but that was years ago I didn't even know if she was still alive._

I shake my head trying to get that last thought out my head, she wasn't dead someone would have told me or at least my parents and they surely would have said something. This thought has been keeping me awake the last few nights, I can feel she is close to me but there is no-way that she is in LA right now; she never comes back. I'm desperately making hints to the cheerleaders that I just want to leave and ride away my thoughts, yet none of them are taking any notice. That's when my phone chimes with a text from a number I don't recognise.

 **Unknown: I don't think you could put all 4 cheerleaders on the bike, if you do manage make it home without dying, you'll have to enjoy the orange xx**

My head shot up with lightning speed and looked around the parking lot. There was only one person that text could be from, and there is only one way she'd know what was happening at this moment.

As I desperately tried to see her, I saw the Jeep pull out into the LA traffic.


	2. Chapter 2

Noah:

Ever since I left school Friday afternoon I couldn't stop thinking about the car or the text. I thought I was imagining it all, but every time I'd look at my phone there it was bright as day; the proof she's in LA.

I was having an internal struggle with myself as to text her back or not. It appeared she didn't want to talk to me otherwise she would have stayed in the parking lot or put me out of my 3-day internal struggle.

Just as I start to write out one of the thousandths of texts I had tried to over the weekend, I hear someone knock on my door. I sighed, dropped my phone onto my bed and went to see who it was. As soon as I open the door I'm confronted with Lee's face.

"What." I demanded

"Mom wanted me to remind you that they were leaving for the trip with the Andersons' this afternoon and won't be back until Thursday."

"Okay, and …" I replied heavily drawing out the last word, so he'd see that I was completely uninterested.

"So …" Lee drug out equally as long "What party are we organising, who's invited, when?"

I rolled my eyes and landed on my bike poster on the wall beside my door "I'm not having a party, you go ahead but I won't be here for it, so no-one will come."

"Cocky, aren't you?" Lee replied with a blank expression "Anyway why? You love to throw a party and browse the house for potential make-outs"

"Yeah well I'm not into it this time." I say staring him right into the eye before I close the door and turn back to lie on my bed.

Lee doesn't take the hint that I want to be alone and he pushes the door open, walks in and sits on my chair. "What the hell is wrong with you; you normally jump at a chance to throw a party!" Lee exclaimed.

"I DON'T WANT TO LEE!" I shouted back, angry and frustrated that he won't leave me alone.

He immediately put his hands up in defence "Alright fine, me and Elle will organise something" he said as he walked out into the hallway. I groaned, having Elle around was getting easier since we'd spoken about not being a couple and hurting Lee. But she had no idea about Olivia who was certainly now back in LA.

Olivia:

The past three days I hadn't done much but sit watching copious amounts of Netflix. My phone was constantly beside me and I was almost begging that he'd text me back. The time it has taken made me think he didn't want to speak or see me again.

It was around 7:30pm when my phone chimed while I was deciding which take-out to order in. As quick as I could, I ran across the room and dived onto my phone, praying it was him.

 **Noah: You're in LA?**

It was simple, very Noah, but to me spoke a thousand words. Yet I was still annoyed that it had taken almost 4 days for him to type out 3 words.

 **Olivia: I am, arrived last Tuesday. Sorry if the text caught you off guard.**

I wasn't going to ignore the fact that I'd totally stalked him, I had to limit the damage that could be caused.

 **Noah: Honestly, I'm glad you sent it.**

 _'_ _Okay Noah'_ I thought _'Give me something to work with here'._ Just as I thought what to text him next, my phone chimed again.

 **Noah: Do you want to go and get some food?**

I just stared at my phone for what seemed like hours. Food with Noah? Where we'd talk? I could do that. I felt like I owed him that much after probably messing with his head for a few days.

 **Olivia: Sure, meet at the end of your drive in 15?**

 **Noah: ok**

 _'_ _Time to start thinking what to say'_ I thought to myself as I tried to look more presentable than my usual lounging at home wear.


	3. Chapter 3

Olivia:

I quickly changed from my boy shorts and tank top into a simple navy t-shirt with daisies, jean shorts and a pair of white Toms. Whilst I was on the way out of my house, I threw my hair up into a messy ponytail and grabbed my keys.

I arrived at Noah's drive almost 5 minutes late and there he was stood against the gate, his motorbike facing the direction of travel. I stared at him, taking in every detail of the boy who was now a man. I noticed he was wearing skinny jeans and a light blue t-shirt underneath his leather jacket, his hair was slightly blowing in the cool air.

"Hey" I said walking up to him as he looked up from his phone

"Hi" He replied as he took in the sight of me. I smirked on the inside, careful not to show him that I was enjoying the looks he was giving me. "You've changed a lot." I raised my eyebrow and he slightly shook his head "I mean you look older, as a compliment" he trailed on, clearly embarrassed that he implied I looked old.

"Thanks, I guess." I looked at him with a slight teasing smirk on my face "Well I can see you haven't changed much, apart from the longer hair." I smiled at him while motioning to the bike "Shall we go?" He nodded and offered me the extra helmet he had on him.

Noah:

As we rode to our once favourite food place just outside the city, I couldn't stop thinking that Olivia was actually behind me, clinging to my waist. I tried to just focus on the traffic and going in the right direction instead of letting my mind wander to thoughts of the girl behind me. When we arrived at the small Italian place Olivia got up off my bike and turned to face me.

"How did you remember this place? I loved it here!" Her face was full of excitement and memories clashing together.

"I loved it too, and do you think I would have forgotten the amazing penne they did here? No." I quipped back, I enjoyed seeing her face light up as if she was a kid again. "Shall we go inside?" She nodded and walked a few steps in front of me.

Once inside the waiter showed us to a table and gave the menus out. After a few minutes of going over the food on offer I looked up and caught her eye "Do you know what you're going to have?" I asked with a slight smile on my face.

"Hmm, I like the sound of the crab pasta. I'm guessing your going for the chicken pomodoro, just like you used to?" I laughed and nodded "Still predicable as ever Flynn."

I feigned happiness that she called me by my last name, as she had refused to call me Flynn ever since I decided it sounded better then 'Noah'. But secretly inside I hated it, the easiness in which she said it made me think that our relationship would never be the same again.

Olivia:

On the inside I'm drowning in my own stupid words, I called him Flynn, I have always refused to call him by his last-name. To the naked eye he looked happy that I'd finally called him by what he wanted, but I could tell that inside he was hurt.

A little while later we were finishing up our meal and enjoy light conversation, none of the dreaded talking topics had come up yet, however I was still expecting them at some point. As I put down my fork after eating my last mouthful, I looked up to Noah and started speaking.

"We need to talk about all of this." I said without looking him in the eye, he nodded in agreement and was about to start talking before I interrupted "I just don't want to do it here, somewhere more private." Once again, he nodded.

"Okay, my place, somewhere in the city or …" he trailed off and looked down at his empty plate. I could tell he wanted to say 'my place' but he wasn't sure.

"Or my place?" I finished for him, he looked up and sheepishly smiled. "I don't mind, where ever you want to go."

I could see that he was thinking the possibilities over.

Noah:

I couldn't finish saying 'your place' because my mind started to run as to where she was staying, I couldn't be far from me considering it took her 15 minutes to get to my place earlier. But, the houses around me are expensive, how could she afford one unless she shared the price with friends or a boyfriend. I was lost in my thoughts until she finished off my sentence. I was relieved that she had offered it up, reassured me slightly that who ever was there, if anyone, she was happy for me to meet.

I pondered over the options before settling on her place, it would give me a chance of seeing where she lived and who with.

"Your place is probably best" I say still uncertain that she'd want me there. She nodded yes and motioned that we should go. Just as quickly as I got my wallet out to pay, she had her purse out and was already talking to the waiter about the cheque. "No, Liv I'll pay." The look of shock on her face was priceless in that moment before I realised what I called her, then I was shocked.

"Listen Noah, I'm all up for men being the gentlemen but I'm paying, just like I can hold the door for you when we walk out. I can take care of myself." She said in a very defensive tone, like I'd hit a nerve. I relented and sat back as she paid.

The ride back to hers was even more silent than it could be on a bike, she only spoken when giving directions. It made me feel that I had messed up again.

Olivia:

As we pulled up at the gates of my house, I hopped off the bike and keyed in the code to open the gates. I walked in while Noah rode in and parked his bike before joining me at the front door.

I was nervous about letting him see where I lived in LA, I prayed he wouldn't be able to tell I come here quite a bit so then I could tell him with words. As we walked in, Noah was amazed and shocked at the same time.

"This place is nice, has your stamp all over it." He said his voice slightly faltering as he started speaking again. "Does anyone live here with you?"

"No not really, occasionally I have people stay when I'm here but not often." I replied while locking the front door and putting the keys into their bowl on the cabinet. I looked up at him, and he looked relieved. "I'm not expecting anyone either, so don't worry about being interrupted." I internally flinch thinking that I've just implied something more that talking could happen and I hoped that Noah didn't pick up on it. The nonchalance Noah displayed reassured me that he didn't.

He followed me through into the kitchen where I grabbed some southern comfort from a cabinet "want a glass?" I offered to him.

"Ur, yeah sure." He replied taking the glass that I had poured out for him with some lemonade in. I lead him to the couch's that surrounded a TV set and sat down.

"So, where do I start?"


	4. Chapter 4

Olivia:

As me and Noah settled into the couch, I got myself comfortable for the conversation ahead. "So, where do I start?" I began while looking up at him. "You're probably wondering how long I'm going to be in LA?"

"Yeah, that and why you're back." Noah responded concentrating on his glass of southern comfort.

"Right ok." I began, "I don't really have a time limit for staying here, I guess I'll leave when the time is right or when I can't stay any longer."

I studied the look on Noah's face as he was slowly processing what I'd just said, "so you'll abruptly leave like last time, late at night with no explanation?" He said in an accusing tone and with hurt in his eyes.

"You know I didn't want to leave like that." I responded getting emotional and frustrated at the memory of our non-existent goodbye.

"Then why did you?" Noah replied, his anger slowly building.

"I had no choice Noah! You have no clue how long I'd delayed leaving just to spend more time with you. It came to the point where I couldn't delay it anymore." He turned away from me and focused on the TV set in front of the couch. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap." I apoplectically added "it's just I hate the way I left last time and want to do it better in the future. I want you to know what's going on."

Noah continued to stare at the TV in silence for a few more seconds before turning back to me "So you're going to leave again?"

I nodded in response "I have no choice, I'll have to at some point." My last statement seemed to hit Noah in the wrong place. He stood up to walk over to the kitchen island where he placed the half empty glass down.

He paused for what felt like hours before looking back at me "You've got to tell me what's happening. I can't stand the thought of being in the position I was when you left last time. You know my parents sent me to a counsellor because my fights got so bad, I can't do that again." He said dejectedly.

"I promise I'll tell you as much as I can." I paused for a moment "As mush is safe for you to know." Noah looked confused by the final thing I said. I started debating with myself if this was the right way to go, and not just leave unexpectedly again with a single text.

As I had an inner debate with myself, I thought back to the conservation I had had with Sam before I flew over to LA. We had talked about all the possibilities and which was best, Sam came to the conclusion that our world was heating up, the pressure of my job was rapidly rising and so was the consequences. I either told Noah what was going on or I would have to try my best to avoid him for the rest of our lives, or at least until I was out of the situation I was currently in. It was time to tell him.

Noah once again joined me on the couch as I went through the details of my current life to him. "I'm going to say this all only once, you can ask questions as I go, and, in the future, you can ask small questions, but this is the only time I'm going to sit and tell you everything, ok?" I ask him, looking into his eyes for agreement, he nods.

Over the next hour, I went about telling Noah every detail of what I could. From being recruited into a subsidiary of the CIA, operating across the globe, shortly after we moved to the east coast, to being moved up the ranks in the subsequent years to level 6 personnel. I explained to him that level 6 was the second highest level and agents operated in the shadows. I filled him in on the people I work with; Sam, my boss, Alex, who relays data to us and Chris, my partner. I told him about the contracts me and Chris carry out, it was at this part where Noah asked his first question.

"So, you and Chris are 'hit-men'?" He asked uncomfortably.

"No." I replied, "Me and Chris carry out orders from our superior about taking out threats, people who are dangerous, but only people who deserve it." I continued opening the large box in my mind that housed several components. I sighed, "I try to reason with myself each time that I'm doing good, but a life is still a life. A life that I'm taking away despite the lives our targets have taken away." I stare off into the distant corner of the room. "That is why I come back. I need to get away from that and try to be normal, like before we moved."

I watched as Noah came to grips with what I'd just said, I could tell he was having a hard time comprehending that his childhood best friend and ex-girlfriend's life was how it was. As he came to accept the information I gave him, he turned to me, "You said 'that's why you come back', this isn't your first time back is it?" I shook my head while simultaneously lowering it to look at the floor, I felt like I'd betrayed him in a way. "How could you, come back and not give me some sort of sign, either a text or a phone call. Why did you leave me in the dark?" He said with distress.

"I'm sorry Noah, I really am." I say as I looked back up at him, "I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to confront what I'd never said goodbye to or face the fact you've moved on. I couldn't bring you into my world." I finished.

I heard Noah mumble something, I didn't catch what it so asked him to repeat it "I never moved on, not completely."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, he hadn't moved on. I was sure he had, the times I would watch him on the beach with a girl stuck to his face or when I'd pass him in a car with a girl on the back of his bike. I was sure that I wasn't his mind anymore. "You haven't move on?" I asked him shakily.

He shook his head "No. I've had flings, even had one relationship but it never felt completely right." I must have looked at him with questions on my face as he began to elaborate. "At school I'm known as a player, at parties I find girls to have flings with. I got into a relationship with Elle last year." I was shocked to hear that, I had known about the rules Lee and Elle had created when they were kids, and I knew how much they stuck to them. "We had to sneak around because she couldn't tell Lee, he found out of course and pretty much offered her a choice, me or him." I could tell before he even finished that she picked Lee. "She obviously picked Lee and that was the end of it. The relationship with Elle felt the most right out of everything but something was still off because I'd find my mind thinking about you." He finished while looking directly into my eyes.

"Noah, I'm sorry again, I truly am." I respond as he nods and drops his head. "Look at me." I say, and he lifts his head up back to looking in my eyes. "I haven't moved on either."

Noah:

Hearing Olivia say that she hadn't moved on either made me fill up with hope and excitement, maybe what ever we had we could try again. I continued to stare into her eyes before I picked up the courage to lean forward. I didn't go all the way forward, I wanted to gage her reaction first; I didn't want to be rejected by her. When she didn't pull away I realised that in fact she was moving slowly closer to me. I closed the gap between our faces with such a passionate kiss, one I hadn't felt since Olivia had left. As I pulled her body closer to mine, I could feel her hands roaming the back of my neck and getting tangled in my hair. My desire grew deeper as she came to be straddling my lap, I reached up and placed my hand under the sweet daisy t-shirt she was wearing.

When she responded by closing the gap between our pelvises I pulled back for a second "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Never been surer in my life." She says slightly out of breath, I smile down at the girl I thought I had lost "lets go up to my room." She said as she got up and lead my hand to the stairs.

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 **I hope you liked this chapter. The chapters are gradually getting longer as the story evolves. :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Super long chapter today, I hope you like it!**

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Noah:

I woke up to the light streaming through the blinds. At first, I was unsure where I was, I looked around with my head trying to see the light that had woken me up when I felt the body next to me move slightly closer. I looked down to her face and brushed strands of her dark blonde hair out her face. I lay there gazing at her for the longest time before her crystal blue eyes open and settle into mine.

"Morning." She mumbled as she pushed herself closer to me.

"Morning Liv." I replied, "I didn't wake you, did I?" She shook her head and glanced over that the window opposite.

"I need to get a thicker blind for that window, wakes me up very morning. Not that it's not a nice wake up call." She finished while smiling up at me. I smiled back before looking over her shoulder to the clock on her nightstand. It was 6:30am.

I let out a dramatic sigh "You know I hate to leave but, I should probably get home before I get an angry text from mom who has been informed by Lee that I didn't return home." Ever since I left without a word for a few days when me and Elle got caught by Lee, my mom has insisted that if I'm out all night she needs to know where. Of course, I didn't want to tell anyone where I was last night, not until I had figured what was going on myself.

Olivia replicated my dramatic sigh "suppose you should go then." She said with a playful smile. I untangled myself from the warm cocoon we had created for ourselves and put my clothes on that had been scattered around the room. "Noah." I heard Liv faintly call just as I fastened my jean's button, I walked over to where she looked like she was sleeping.

"Yeah?" I asked her while lightly stroking her hair.

"Last night," she began, I knew this was coming at some point "It meant something to me." She continued as she looked into my eyes. _That shocked me, I was expecting something else._

"It did to me too." I replied before I leant in and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll see you soon, Liv." I said as I got up and walked out the door.

~#~#~

I left Olivia's place and arrived back to my home at 7am. It was a Tuesday morning during the summer, I knew my parents were on a business trip and Lee would still be in his pit of a bedroom until noon at least. I parked my bike outside the garage before walking into the kitchen and making a bee-line for the fridge. I opened it to see what I could eat, and as I turned around with a carton of milk in my hand, I saw Elle sat on the kitchen island with a glass of what looked like orange juice. I jumped slightly.

"Ur, hey Elle" I stuttered, not expecting to find her here. "What are you doing here?"

"Drinking orange juice, isn't it obvious?" She deadpans back.

I roll my eyes in annoyance that she knew what my question implied but didn't answer it. "Elle, what are you doing in my house?" I ask her more specifically.

"Oh, you should have said that first. I stayed over last night with Lee." She replied in a monotoned voice. I slightly nodded my head before grabbing a cereal box and bowl from a cabinet. I could feel her eyes watching me as I went about making breakfast. "What are you even doing here?" _Seriously?_ I thought _It's my house!_ I was about to reply before she spoke up again "It's 7am, shouldn't you be in bed?" I raised my eyebrow at her "I mean like you struggle to get up for school, it's spring break and your up at 7?"

I opened my mouth to give her some sort of lie as to why I was up before she interrupted me "Or you never came home last night?" She accused. When I ate my cereal and didn't reply to her, she knew she was correct. "You slept with someone, didn't you?" She said in a tone that I thought sounded like she was hurt or jealous. "Who was it? How do you know them?" She continued, it felt like I was being interrogated by my mom.

"Why should you care? You're the one who chose Lee. It's not like we're in a relationship Elle." She was taken aback by my reply.

"Yeah … Well …" She stuttered "It doesn't matter." She finished while standing up to get herself some food out the fridge. I huffed, I still wanted a relationship with Elle, not a romantic one but one where we can be friends and talk. That's what I enjoyed about our relationship, she'd be honest with me.

Just as I was about to open my mouth to speak to Elle more, my phone started ringing. I looked at the caller and placed my now empty bowl in the sink before answering.

 _"_ _Hey, what's up?" I answered trying to stay as cool as I could._

 _"_ _I found your gold ring on the floor; do you want me to drop it off?"_

 _"_ _No, its ok. I'll come and pick it up after I've had a shower." I unintentionally smiled while talking to her. I saw out the corner of my eye, Elle watching my every move._

 _"_ _Ok sure, does that mean I can bully you into joining me on a trip for a new blind?" I heard her snickering in the background and couldn't help but chuckle myself._

 _"_ _If I must." I replied with a sarcastic sweetest. "I'll come over in a bit." I finished before I ended the call._

I turned to Elle who I knew was watching the whole exchange; I did my trade mark sexy smirk before retreating to my room for a shower and change of clothes.

Elle:

As I watched Noah walk up the stairs, I felt as if my sanity was going with him. We weren't a couple and hadn't been for almost a year, but I still felt a pang of jealousy that he was clearly with someone else; it didn't sound like a 'fling' call to me. I had known Noah since I was born and during his phone conservation, the reactions he gave to whoever was speaking on the other side where ones I had rarely if ever seen before. I had to get more information, so I went to wake up Lee.

As I went into Lee's room I made no attempt to be quiet; like I had earlier when I went to get a drink. I went straight to the bed and started poking his face with my finger, it took about 5 minutes before I had Lee scowling in my face. "Oh, don't scowl at me. I didn't wake you by choice, it was a must!" He rolled his eyes knowing this had to be important, so he sat up against the head board.

"Go on then?" He said while still slightly sleepy.

"I bumped into Noah this morning in the kitchen."

"This early?" He asked with shock, I dramatically nodded my head.

"He had walked in from the garage door. He had the clothes on that we saw him leave in last night."

"He was with a girl" Lee said in a very matter of fact way. Again, I nodded my head in agreement.

"Then, we were talking, and his phone rings. I think it was whoever he spent the night with and he was smiling and laughing like I have _NEVER_ seen before." I emphasised 'never' so Lee would understand how weird it was.

"Oh." Lee said to my statement.

"Oh? All you can say is oh?" I look at him incredulously. But at the same time, I could see the cogs turning in his head. "Lee!" I shouted to get his attention again.

"Ur yeah … Why are you so bothered about it?" I looked down and played with the frayed parts of his duvet cover "OHH" he then said in realisation.

"It doesn't mean anything. I'll take my best friend over a guy any day." Lee nodded, possibly thinking I might have changed my decision in that moment. "But it still bothers me."

Lee sympathetically smiled and nodded. "Ok. I'll try to find out. To put your mind at rest." He said while tapping my leg.

"Thank you, Lee." I replied with gratitude.

Lee:

It was later in the day when Elle had left to go home that I went up to Noah's room to confront him with what I already knew. Only to find out he wasn't there, so I called him.

 _"_ _Lee, what do you want?" I heard Noah say when he answered the phone._

" _I need to talk to you. Where are you?"_

 _"_ _I'm on my way back now. I'll be home soon."_

I hung up and began to psych myself up to talk to him about what Elle had witnessed.

It was around 30 minutes later when his car finally pulled into the drive. I was sat on the couch in the large entertaining space in the house, opposite the pool. When Noah saw me, he came over and sat on the opposite couch.

"What do you need to talk about?" He asked as if he was interested in what I was going to say. That weirded me out.

"You this morning and the call that Elle over heard." I watched as he smiled slightly while looking at his shoes before snapping his head back up.

"So, I'm not allowed to see anyone else because of Elle?"

"No. This has nothing to do with Elle." I replied.

"Didn't you just say the 'call that Elle overheard'?" He's frustrating me even more with each word that comes out his mouth.

"Yes." He smirked and nodded as if he was right "but right now, I'm more concerned as to who you were talking to."

"Why? You're not my parent, you're my little brother." Noah replied, himself getting frustrated that he's getting a lecture off me. He began to walk away so I quickly said what I needed to.

"I know it was Olivia on the phone." Noah spun around quicker than the spinning tea-cup ride. "I also know you spent the night with her and today with her."

If looks could kill, right there I would be dead, in the ground with 3 meters of soil on top of me. "How do you know? Have you been following me?"

"Following you? No" I said with confusion and disgust, _does he really think I find him that interesting that I need to follow him?_ "Elle description of you on the phone and your whole attitude since Friday stinks of Olivia being around.

Noah looked aghast "So, you're getting on to me about being happy? That is messed up Lee, even from you."

"I don't care if your happy or not. I remember what happened last time, and now Elle …" I trailed off.

"Now Elle what?" Noah shouted back.

"I don't want anyone to be in the position you were in last time!" Now we were both shouting at each other.

"You have no clue Lee, and if you haven't noticed I'm a big boy now" he said sarcastically "I can make my own choices."

"If this in anyway affects Elle, you'll have me to answer to." I reply bitterly while staring him down.

"It's not going to affect Elle if you're too blind to see Lee, me and Elle are nothing anymore because you gave her a choice and she chose you. Good for her, I've moved on." Noah shouted as he walked towards the stairs "You and Elle could even get together for all I care! Now get off my back!" He finished as he reached the top of the stairs and slammed his door shut.

I fell back onto the couch and groaned. I definitely was not telling Elle what had just happened or what Noah had said about us getting together, _that would be weird_. I wasn't going to hurt her with more Noah crap, than what I already had. I decided not to tell her the words that had come out of his mouth. I groaned again and shut my eyes to try to process the fight we just had. Then my phone chimed, and I knew it was Elle.

 **Elle: Got anything out of Noah?**

Now what do I tell her?


	6. Chapter 6

Noah:

As I slammed my door shut after arguing with Lee, I stormed over to a small punching bag I have hung up inside my closet. I begin punching it with all the anger that rose in me from the argument. _How dare he say what I can and can't do. He even brought Elle into it, when he was the one who gave her a choice in the first place and now he's concerned about me hurting her._ I continued punching the bag with as much power as I could muster. By the time I had calmed myself down a bit, I saw my knuckles were starting to bleed and had bruises over them. I groaned and walked into my bathroom to place my hands under running water.

I wiped my hands try on a towel and went back into my room to find my phone. No luck, I must have left it downstairs. I got annoyed with myself that I had left it and would have to go back down and see Lee's face again. I gathered all my inner strength, before going down to the kitchen, to try and not punch him in the face.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs I saw Lee was no longer there and had been replaced by Elle; internally I cussed to myself. I walked heavy footed over to the couch and saw my phone laying there, _it must have fallen out my pocket earlier_ I thought. I picked it up and turned around and saw Elle switching between looking at my fists and looking at my face. "What!" I almost shouted at her, my anger starting to course through me again.

"Jesus, nothing. What's got you so angry?" She replied while keeping a safe distance between herself and me.

I scoffed, shot her a death glare and walked back towards the stairs. As I was walking past her I sensed her fear, which calmed me down. I hated the people I care about being scared of me, but I bring it on myself I suppose. Before I started climbing the stairs I turned back round to Elle who was watching me like a hawk; she looked taken aback that I'd turned around. "Sorry, Shelley." I said looking directly in her face, I hoped she could recognise that I wasn't angry at her and I was truly sorry that I had made her scared. I noticed her nodding before I turned back around and walked up back to my room.

Elle:

I watched Noah disappear at the top of stairs before letting out the breath I was holding in; his anger had completely freaked me out and I became aware that I had actually been scared of Noah in that moment. I decided I needed to find Lee and ask what that was about, he hadn't yet told me what information he'd got out of Noah, but from his reactions just then I could tell the information gathering didn't happen civilly.

"Hey Lee" I shouted when I had reached the pool table. He looked up from setting up the balls, so we could play. "What happened between you and Noah" I asked and instantly saw anger rising in him.

"We had an argument"

"About what …" I pushed as Lee passed me a cue.

"About what you told me this morning. We ended up shouting at each other about you."

 _What? Me?_ "About me?" I stuttered "What about me."

"About hurting you. It was nothing." Lee then took the first turn and broke into the balls. I could tell he was not going to give me more information on the argument. For now, I had got all I was going to out of Lee and my own ideas of the argument that made Noah so angry.

Noah:

When I got into my room, I could hear Lee and Elle talking down near the pool. I went over to my balcony and heard Lee say we had an argument, but he refused to tell her more, I silently thanked god. I regretted what I had said about Elle, the anger of the moment caught up with me. I knew there was only one way I'd calm down completely, just then it seemed as if Olivia could read my mind because a call was coming in from her.

 _"_ _Hi." I said when I answered the phone_

 _"_ _Your angry, what's up?" Olivia replied, she could read me like an open book._

 _"_ _Lee confronted me about being with you and brought Elle into the situation." I heard Olivia sigh before I continued "we had a massive argument, I said some things about them both and then stormed off."_

 _I could tell Olivia was carefully considering what to say next "Elle wasn't actually there though, or was she?"_

 _"_ _No, thank god." I heard her let out a breath simultaneously to me "but a few minutes ago I kind of shouted at her when I saw her in the kitchen." There was paused on the other side of the phone "I said sorry" I added._

 _"_ _Noah …" Olivia started, it sounded like she was debating with herself "this is all my fault, I shouldn't have text you."_

 _"_ _What! No, no." I responded quickly "I'm glad you did."_

 _"_ _But your having arguments with your brother and Elle, just because your spending time with me."_

 _"_ _I like spending time with you, it makes me happy." I reply feeling sadness well-up inside me. I sensed what was coming next, I wouldn't like. In the background I heard what sounded like a guy, suddenly the sadness turned to anger. "Is someone with you?"_

 _There was another pause which seemed like it went on for hours "Noah …" my anger rose as she used my name with exhaustion. "I …" she began as I thought this was her 'leaving' call just like she'd promised she wouldn't do, she hasn't changed. She sighed again before speaking up "Can we talk in person?" There it was._

 _"_ _Ok." I said dubiously "What time should I come over?" I tested her._

 _"_ _It is okay if I come to yours, tomorrow around midday?" She said quietly._

 _"_ _Oh yeah, ok. Text me when you're outside the gates." I heard a quiet 'ok' before the phone line went dead._

I threw my phone on the bed before I went and slammed my body into the fall and shut my eyes. There was definitely someone else there, someone with a masculine voice and she didn't want me to come over, she was coming here. When she comes over, I'm expecting her to say she's leaving. At least this time she'll do it in person. I punched the wall in front of me before heading to the down to the garage to take a ride on my bike to calm myself down.

* * *

 **A/N: A shorter chapter today, but it leads to the next one which I'll be uploading soon. I hoped you liked it x**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: This might be the last chapter for a few days as I have solid timetable of exams until Tuesday. I'll try and get another chapter up, but sorry if I don't! xx**

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Noah:

It was the next way and I headed down to the bottom of the driveway to wait for Olivia to turn up at 12pm. I was surprised when she showed up on the dot, over the top of the gates I saw her get out of a car I didn't recognise. She was smiling and talking to the driver before she said goodbye and watched the car drive off in the distance. I tried to see who was driving the car, I could make out a youngish guy by the silhouette, but I couldn't see any features that would identify him. I watched as Olivia walked over the road, I ducked my head down so that when she was closer to the gate she wouldn't see me watching her. That's when my phone chimed:

 **Olivia: I'm outside the gates x**

I saw the kiss at the end of the text, that got my mind rolling as she had only sent me kisses when she freaked me out with the first text after school. I waited a few steps away from the gate so that she wouldn't know I'd been stood there before I made a point of making noise as I walked a few steps forward to open it.

"Hi Liv." I said when the gates opened enough for her to walk inside.

"Hey Noah." She said with a nervous tone that made me nervous.

We walked up to the house in uncomfortable silence, my mouth kept opening but I had no words to say in that moment. Subconsciously I was waiting until no-one would be able to hear the conversation. We got the front door, which I opened for her, and went inside.

"Do you want a drink?" I asked motioning to the kitchen. She shook her head no and we walked towards the stairs. We were about to step onto the first stair when two teenagers came around the corner and started making their way down the stairs while excitedly chatting to each other. I looked across to Olivia to see her reaction to meeting Lee and Elle like this; she looked shocked, but not scared. They didn't notice us at first, then Elle saw us and immediately stopped talking which lead to Lee to look and stare at us.

"Lee, Elle." I said politely, in my head I was begging them to keep moving and not say a word.

"Noah, …" Elle replied, looking at Olivia obviously not knowing her name. I heard Olivia cough, so I looked at her. Her eyes darted from Lee and Elle to me, I knew she was saying 'introduce me' but I was frozen, I was not expecting this.

Luckily Lee kept walking and Elle followed, once they were at the bottom of the stairs Lee looked over at us two "Olivia." He said in an uneasy tone. I watched as she nodded at Lee and smiled at Elle.

"I'm Olivia." She then said to Elle while sticking her hand out to shake. I could tell Elle was trying to think of something, but she couldn't. I could also tell that Elle was looking Olivia up and down and probably comparing her to herself. Olivia was petit, not as petit as Elle, she was clearly athletic, with her perfectly formed arm muscles on display, and her dark blonde hair tied into a ponytail.

Lee nudged Elle to knock her out of her trans-like state "Ur, Hi, Olivia. I'm Elle. Lee's best friend." She stuttered while also taking a glance at me, as if to ask if she should include me in her introduction, when I didn't respond to her facial cues she went quiet quickly. In the meantime, I was praying this whole awkward exchange would end soon, I placed my hand on Olivia back and whispered in her ear.

"Shall we go upstairs?"

She nodded, she could tell that I was uncomfortable in this awkwardness. "Well it was nice to see you again Lee." She smirked at my brother "and it was nice to meet you Elle after all these years." She genuinely smiled at my brother's best friend. I kept turning around to look at Elle and Lee as we were walking up the stairs, both of them watched us without saying a word.

~#~#~#~

Once we made it into my room, I looked over to Olivia and let out a small huff "that was awkward." I slightly smiled while waiting for her response.

"Oh, thank god, it wasn't just me." She said before we both burst into laughter. Laughing with Olivia felt great. It felt like nothing had ever changed, like she hadn't moved away, we hadn't already tried and failed at a relationship. Laughing with her just felt normal, and safe.

We spent a few minutes calming down from our laughing session before I opened my stupid mouth "You wanted to talk."

Olivia:

The way Noah said matter of factly, that we needed to talk, caused me to curse at myself. He thought this was 'the talk', that couldn't be further from the truth.

"Noah, I'm not having that 'talk' with you." I watched as his face slightly relax but was still tense, so I added the next thing he would be anxious about "I'm also not leaving anytime soon." That was when his face fully relaxed before it turned to concern.

"What's up then?" He queried.

"After you dropped me off yesterday, after going shopping, I couldn't stop myself from thinking back to spending time with you and I just wanted to call you up to spend more time with you." I witnessed Noah sheepishly smiling, I hoped he was thinking the same thing. "Then a friend came over" I caught myself on the word 'friend' and I hoped he didn't notice, Of course he did, this boy never misses anything.

"A friend?" He repeated while raising an eyebrow in an almost accusing manner; something he had a talent for.

"It was Chris." I thought I better get that out the way first. "He had a layover here on the way to Hawaii and I offered a room for him to stay in?"

"Why did he stay with you?" Noah asked while fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt.

"Because I'm his friend and you offer a room for your friends when they're in town. Plus, it makes it less out of the ordinary for Ava if he was staying at mine." I saw Noah get confused by the new name I had produced "Ava is Chris's girlfriend." I watched as Noah visibly deflated as his let out a breath I didn't know he was holding in. I was confused for a seconded before it clicked "Oh, you thought Chris and I were like 'together'?"

I watched as he suddenly become uncomfortable again, "Well you called him your 'partner' and I figured you spend a lot of time together."

It was true at me and Chris had to pretend to be a couple for certain jobs that we did, there was certainly no romantic feelings there though. "Chris and I are just friends, we will never be more than friends. Okay?" I watched as Noah accepted my explanation and nodded "Also, I could never get between Chris and Ava, especially since he is proposing to her in Hawaii." I added so Noah would know for sure that nothing will ever happen there. "I picked up the ring a few days ago, he had a lay-over to collect it."

I felt as if we had now cleared up the questions that Noah had, so I could move onto what I wanted to talk to him about. "So, the reason I wanted to speak to you." Noah straightened up his posture as he listened. "I was speaking to Chris last night and cut a long story short, I'm taking some time off. I'm going to stay here most likely till the end of summer." I hoped that Noah had seen through to what I was implying, that fact he was staying silent demonstrated that he hadn't. "Noah." I smiled at him before I suddenly became nervous and fidgeted with the bedding "I want to …" _here goes nothing_ "If you want …" _I can't get the words out of my mouth. If he didn't say something quick, I'll probably continue muttering nonsense until he caught on._

I felt relieved when I saw a look of knowing across his face "You want what?" He was playing me, but that also made me reassured that maybe he did want a relationship too.

"You're going to make me say it all aren't you?"

"Yep." He emphasised the 'P'

"Oh god, you're so annoying you know that!" His face displayed a massive smirk as he looked into my eyes and I looked back "Noah Flynn. Will you be my boyfriend?" I watched as he pretended to deeply think about it, shake his head and finally looking back at me while holding a larger smirk than before. "Seriously? Noah. I'm about to kill you." I said in all seriousness.

"If you're talking like that, I suppose I don't have a choice." He chuckled. I began laughing too. He then leaned in for a kiss. The make-out session as it had now become got heated very quickly. I was full of desire for Noah again, as I brought myself ever close to his body, I felt him pull away.

"What are you doing?" I asked him while still panting.

He looked at me with what was soon becoming his trademark wide grin, "All this talking has made to hungry, what do you say we go get food, girlfriend." He added onto the end, I hated being referred to as simply 'girlfriend', and he knew it.

I groaned "on three conditions, you don't call me that _ever_ again unless your introducing me and my name follows." He nodded again, this time with a large cheeky grin "We go to In 'n' Out, I want a burger." He laughed and nodded again. "But before we go, you have to put me out my misery" I dramatically pouted.

"Ok." Noah said as soon as I had gotten the last word out of my mouth. Before I knew it, he was pulling me on top of him and connecting our lips together again.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I managed to write a chapter today which means I can upload a chapter! I hope you like the chapter being more from Elle's POV.**

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Noah:

It was a few days after me and Olivia had become 'official', as some would call it. We spent most of our time at her house hanging out with and without clothes. My parents weren't back from their trip yet and I had gotten a call from them last night telling me they were staying an extra few days.

In the early hours of this morning we had been hanging out at my house for the first time since the awkward run in with Lee and Elle. We had fallen asleep on my bed around 3am; it was around 11am when I woke up and opened my eyes. I saw the outline on the duvet where Olivia had slept curled into me, it was stone cold, so she had been up for a long time. I rolled over to where she had been laying and stared at the ceiling. I then felt a slap on my arm, I moved my head to see Olivia in boy shorts and a top with a towel in her hand.

"You hit me with a towel?" I exclaimed in pretend shock.

She just laughed at me, so I then pretended to be hurt. As she sat on the edge of the bed facing me, she began to speak "I did. But you're already awake so it doesn't matter." She poked my cheek "We need your help!"

"With what." I groaned, this can't be good.

"Party organising." She quickly said before getting up so I wouldn't be able to grab her.

"Party?"

"Yeah, I was downstairs earlier, saw Lee and told him that your parents won't be home for a few more days and he suddenly screamed party."

"You didn't agree, did you?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun. Don't be a killjoy." Olivia teased me with the towel again, snapping it closer and closer to my arm. I watched her as she watched my unexcited expression at the thought of a party. "Come on" she said as she moved closer to me and whispered, "alcohol is the perfect excuse for indecent actions in public." I smirked, and she continued "although, your room won't be far away." She messed with me while stretching out her arms so that her top lifted and I could see her stomach.

"When is this said party?"

"Aha, I knew I'd get you with that." She said playfully before kissing me softly on the lips. "Tonight, Lee said he and Elle didn't get around to organising one themselves." I chuffed at that.

"Urgh, fine. Is Lee downstairs now?" I asked while getting up and finding some shorts I could put on, in the meantime Olivia had changed into jean shorts and a cute top.

"Yeah, Elle is there too, I think." I nodded as we both headed out the door to sort out this party.

We got downstairs just as Lee and Elle were grabbing their favourite orange soda from the fridge.

"I heard something about a party?" I announced when I entered the kitchen area.

Lee looked over "Yeah, me, Elle and Olivia organised it this morning. Starts at 9 tonight"

"You already organised it?" I turn in shock to Olivia who stood and smiled at me.

"You're not the only one who can throw a party Flynn." She defiantly responded. I rolled my eyes at her, grunted and went back to my bed.

Elle:

Watching the exchange between Noah and Olivia caused yet another pang of jealousy to run rapid through my body, I tried to hide it but when I looked over to Lee, his face showed that I wasn't doing a good job. I watched as Noah walked back upstairs before turning to my 'rival' as I called her in my head.

"How did you get him to agree?" I asked Olivia as she began to create a party shopping list.

She looked up and smiled her perfect smile at me with her blue eyes and perfect jaw line. "I have my ways." She laughed slightly.

In my mind I was bitching about her, _she couldn't be this perfect all the time, could she_? I found myself getting angry at her for being perfect, then I got angrier at myself for thinking about this girl who I'd only just been introduced to and was already seemed to be one of the sweetest girls I'd ever met. But she was with Noah when I couldn't be. I reasoned with myself that I could be jealous of her, just not show it. I walked over to see what she had written down on the list, it consisted of different types of alcohol and a few snacks at the bottom.

"Elle, do you want to come with me to pick this stuff up?" She asked me with the smile that I was beginning to get annoyed at because it made me jealous.

My mind was screaming _'no'_ , let the girl go alone. _Don't spend time with her alone, help Lee out at the house._ But my mouth had other ideas "Sure, let me grab my purse." I begin walking towards the stairs and Lee's room before her voice interrupts me.

"Don't bother, I'll pay for it all."

"Oh, ok." I said as I turned around to go out the front door.

I reached the top of the porch steps before turning back to Olivia who now had a pair of reflective ray-bans perched on her nose. "Are we taking your car?"

"Yeah, we'll have to walk to mine real quick is that's ok?" _I was walking to Olivia's, What?_

I stuttered before answering her "Oh, yeah sure." God what was wrong with me, I can't be normal around this 'perfect' girl.

~#~#~#~

As we walked to Olivia's house, I kept finding myself watching her. Her white converse, denim shorts and t-shirt perfectly fit. I saw what I thought was a small tattoo on her ankle. Everything about her screamed 'perfect'. _I have got to stop using that word,_ I thought to myself, _she is just a person, no-one is perfect."_

I finally plucked up enough courage to ask her a question: "Is that a tattoo on your ankle?"

"Yeah, it's a collection of little stars, I think there is about 6." I nodded to myself and her, "I didn't want anything that would be easy to see. Tattoos to me are more about what they mean than what they look like."

"Yeah, I've always thought the same." Her relaxed nature was starting to rub off on me, I started to feel more comfortable in her presence.

"I'm thinking about getting another one soon, not sure what yet though." She noticed me smiling and nodding my head to her. "You're going to get a tattoo?"

"I think so, when I'm old enough." I replied, I would never tell my dad though, he has always been vocal on his opinion of tattoos. I watched as Olivia seemed to laugh at what I had just said, she looked over to me before speaking up.

"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you. I just remembered when I got my 1st tattoo, I was your age was scared to death that my fake id wouldn't work." I don't know why it didn't cross my mind before, of course she is the type of person who would have a fake id. Then I thought more and realised that was how we were getting the alcohol too.

"You just realised we're buying alcohol with my fake, didn't you?" This girl could read minds I swear.

I looked at her sheepishly "Will they let you buy it if I'm there?"

"God no, not a chance. That is why your buying snacks and we don't know each other." She winked at me. I wasn't the one committing a crime, technically, but my usual Elle-self started to worry.

~#~#~#~

We arrived at Olivia's house, and she immediately opened up the garage from her phone. "Pick a car." She said to me.

"Pick a car?" I repeated.

"Yep. Which ever you want." This girl was crazy.

"Can you drive any of these?" She looked at me confused "Like you your parents be okay with it?" In that moment I thought to myself, this girl has a tattoo, fake id and wasn't afraid to commit a crime, she's not going to be thinking about what her parents would say.

In the distance I heard my name being called, I looked around then realised it was Olivia calling me "Elle." I turned back to face her "These cars are all mine, just like the house. My parents don't live here."

 _Okay, is this girl like a billionaire? She's 18 lives alone in LA has 4 amazing cars in one garage._ I suddenly compared myself to her again, this time though I viewed myself as the little naïve girl Noah got with, when he'd already had experience with this girl who was mysterious, sweet, and probably one of the most attractive girls I have ever seen. "Oh, okay …" I looked around at my choices, there was a 4x4 silver Jeep, an electric blue Mustang – it was a much newer model than Lee's -, a black Tesla, and a red convertible Cadillac sport car. "Let's go with the red one on the end." I point to the Cadillac, Olivia nodded and picks up a pair of keys from a draw near a door that I assumed went into the house. "Can we have the roof down?" I asked as we got in.

"Absolutely, what the point of having a convertible if you don't put the roof down."

~#~#~#~

As we were driving to the store, I thought this is my opportunity to get to know Olivia more. "So, urm, when did you move back?" I asked to start the ball rolling.

"I flew in last Tuesday, but I haven't moved back. I'm staying for a while then I'll be leaving." Okay, this is odd.

"So why have you come back?"

"I come back every so often just to get away from things, I wasn't meant to be staying for long, but plans change." She said as she shrugged her shoulders "I find it more peaceful in LA."

"Peaceful in LA, do you not recognise traffic?" I laugh.

Olivia joined me with laughter "Compared to how I spend my time when I'm not here, I think LA is peaceful. It's predictable more than anything, I know there will be traffic for example."

"How do you spend your time away form LA then?" I pondered.

"Oh, urm …" I noticed her shuffling the driving seat, a clear sign she was uncomfortable. "Can we change the subject?" She looked over and smiled, I nodded, I had no clue what to talk about next. Luckily, I was saved by a text from Lee.

 **Lee: How's the drive going?**

 **Elle: Awkward.**

On Lee's end of the phone I can imagine him laughing at my text. I scrolled through my social media to look busy and hopefully Olivia wouldn't ask me any questions. When I caught her eye in the mirror, I knew my luck was out for today.

"I know you probably find this awkward." She said as she motioned between us "but, it would be nice to have female company while I'm here, I don't get much of it normally." I couldn't help but smile at that, she genuinely was a nice, sweet person. I could see what attracted Noah to her. "Bearing that in mind, I want you to ask me questions that you have, and I'll try to answer them as best I can. Some I won't be able to, deal?"

I was taken aback with this, but I saw this as the perfect opportunity to dig deeper into Noah's new interest. "Okay …" I thought about getting the big questions done first "Are you and Noah a couple?"

"Woah, you don't hold back" I smile, straightforward and brutal honestly that's me, Elle Evans, to a T. "To answer your question, yes we are." I couldn't help but look down and think about them as a couple and not me and Noah as a couple, Olivia must have seen my reaction because she started talking again "I know you and Noah dated in secret for a while" she stopped and looked at my face "I don't want to make you uncomfortable in all this." Add kind to the list of 'annoying' features this girl had.

"No, it's okay. I chose Lee. It's over with." Olivia looked shocked with what I just responded with, she eyed me up for a second to make sure I meant it, which I did, sort of. "Okay, new question: where'd you get your clothes from?" I tried to lighten the mood.

When I heard a chuckle, I knew my plan kind of worked. "Just normal stores, I guess. Nothing special. I don't shop at high-end designers, mostly." We both laughed. This car ride was getting easier.

It seemed like only minutes had passed of conversation before we had arrived at the store. Olivia got a cart and took off before I collected my cart, I was in charge of getting snacks and I was also going to pick up a soft drink for me now because I was thirsty. I saw Olivia again at the check-out in front of me, we both stuck to the plan and pretended we didn't know each other. We reunited back in the car, at the back of the parking lot.

"Got everything?" Olivia asked.

"Yep, got these two cokes as well for us now." I handed a bottle over to her, unsure if she'd take it.

"Life-saver! I completely forgot to get myself a drink." I smiled as she took the bottle and took a few large gups of the liquid inside. She put the car in drive and drove out the lot, before we had even been on the road for 5 minutes I realised we were going the wrong way.

"Hey, we're going the wrong way back." I said out-loud.

"I'm avoiding traffic." Olivia smiled back. We drove a few more miles before a noise inside the car signalled that Olivia had an incoming call. She looked at the caller id before turning to me. "Do you mind if I take this?" Her tone of voice came across as urgent, I just nodded "Don't make a sound while the call is on, ok?" Again, I nodded before Olivia accepted the call.

 _"_ _Liv."_

 _"_ _Yeah Sam. Quick FYI I have a passenger." She looked back over at me to check I was still ok with her taking the call, it's not like I would say no to it in her car?_

 _"_ _Ok." There was a pause "call me back when you're alone."_

 _"_ _Ok … can I get an indication what it's about?"_ _I looked over and saw her grip the wheel tighter and her face became almost like stone._

 _"_ _Not wise, no." I didn't understand that last part. Before I knew it, the call was disconnected._

"Sorry about that." Olivia said while staying in the same position as before, except now she looked paler.

"Oh, no problem." I was confused as to what I had just heard.

~#~#~#~

The rest of the drive was silent, I could tell that Olivia didn't want me to say anything, so I got out my phone and scrolled through it again, a habit I had picked up for when I'm uncomfortable.

When we arrived back at the house, Lee and Noah came out to help up unload the car before I witness Olivia turn to Noah and whisper something to him before she went upstairs. Noah then walked over to where me and Lee were standing, unloading the bags. "Can you guys handle this, I have to do something." Noah said in a hurry.

"Sure, is Olivia going to help?" Lee asked.

"No, she's got to call someone." Lee exchanged a confused look with Noah before he went upstairs, presumably to join Olivia.

"Do you know what that was about?" I whispered to Lee when Noah was no longer in sight.

"No. Not a clue." I could tell Lee was lying, he avoided meeting my gaze and continued to unpack the bags.

For the second time in an hour I was confused and uncomfortable. I knew there was something major Lee, Noah or even Olivia wasn't telling me.


	9. Chapter 9

Olivia:

Once the phone call in the car had ended, I had a feeling of what it was about. To make matters worse I had Elle in the car, so I had to act like everything was normal which was hard to do. Luckily for me, Elle didn't attempt to speak to me for the rest of the drive. As soon as we got to the Flynn house, the boys came out and helped unload the car before I turned to Noah and motioned for his ear "I got a call from Sam, I'm going upstairs to call him back." I lightly hold onto his arm for more seconds than normal, to show him that this wasn't a simple 'catch-up' call. As I walked up the stairs I heard Noah telling Lee and Elle that he had to do something, his tone full of urgency.

As I got settled on the edge of Noah's bed, I heard him walk in. "Do you know what this is going to be about?" He asked me while pacing the room.

"No. He wouldn't tell me because Elle was in the car. But I have an inkling." He stopped pacing and looked at me with hope "I don't think it's what you're hoping for." I added. I watched as Noah's face dropped and a hint of panic and nervousness come across it. I patted the bed next to me, so I could hold onto him while I took the call.

I knew the call was not going to be something good, the years in this business had taught me to read off people's voices and Sam's earlier was riddled with apprehension. I looked up at Noah as I found Sam's number in my phone and I squeezed his hand as the phone rang.

 _"_ _Sam, it's me. I have Noah next to me" I had to let him know that there would be someone listening to this conversation._

 _"_ _Liv, just make sure you listen to the phone on the opposite side, he doesn't want to hear it like this." As a moved the phone onto my left ear, I knew that Sam was about to be as blunt as possible and Noah didn't need to hear what was coming like that. I would have to tell him in a softer way._

 _"_ _Ok. Go ahead." I say to Sam as Noah squeezes my hand again._

 _"_ _The job you did in Berlin just before your break. We got intelligence that somehow a guy saw you and has tracked you to LA." I freeze. Noah notices my complete change in demeanour and snakes his hand around my back while placing his other hand on my thigh. An attempt to make me feel safe I think, it wasn't working._

 _"_ _How has this happened?" I demanded, security was the highest priority in my job. That is why I wear a mask over my face and clothes that don't show any figure. Nobody knows who I am, nobody knows I am even female. My code name is swan, I picked it out as because it reminded me of when me and Noah went swan watching when we were kids. The people I was tasked with had a different name for me though, they called me the black swan, and a rumour had circulated that you know you're going to die when you see my face. I found that rumour hilarious when Sam first told me._

 _"_ _We're thinking he saw you in Berlin and has stalked your social profiles and found you. We got intelligence that he made it to LA this morning, of course he doesn't know where you are yet." I couldn't believe what I was hearing "Be assured there are no leaks." I needed to know that, a leak would mean that one of my close friends who have betrayed me as only Sam, Alex and the head of our sub-division knew who me and Chris were. We didn't even have a clue of other teams, that's how secretive this world is._

 _"_ _What's the next step?" I asked Sam with my own inking as to what it would be._

 _"_ _I've booked a hotel room downtown. Chris is flying in right now, and Alex is on her way. She'll brief you there." This plan pretty much followed what I had in my head to a T. I look over to Noah who is watching my every move whilst squeezing my thigh and side for comfort._

For the next few minutes as Sam went over the details of the hotel, the name for checking in and the other information I needed to know; I could tell Noah was getting more and more anxious. He watched as I wrote out the details in a sort of code with the pad and pen he had gotten me when I signalled I needed one. Once the phone call had finished I sighed and looked up at my boyfriend, who was plastered with worry.

"So," I began "there is an issue. I can't tell you the full details but tomorrow morning I have to leave. I don't know how long I'll be gone."

I watched as Noah physically tensed "You said you weren't going to leave? What's happened?" _God, I wish I could tell him and he could save me from it all._

"I wish I could tell you, but I can't, you know why." I looked down dejectedly. "I'm not leaving properly, it'll hopefully be just for a few days. I'll do my best to come back soon." I lean in for a kiss, Noah moved his head, so I made contact with his cheek. "Noah …" I said as he got up and walked out the room. "Noah!" I shouted again following him down the stairs and out the front door. I watched helplessly as he got on his bike and rode off, I dropped to my knees and cried, I never wanted to hurt him.

I sat on the floor and cried for a good 5 minutes before I felt a pair of arms lift me up. I looked up expecting Noah to be back, instead I saw Lee, his face full of worry. "Olivia. Olivia stand up!" I heard him in the distance demand. I did what he said, I stood up and then Lee placed his arm around me and walked me back into the house. "I'll take her upstairs, won't be a second." I heard him say to Elle as we slowly started walking up the stairs.

Once we got to Noah's room, Lee helped me get onto the bed. "What is it?" He asked, knowing full well what it was.

Lee:

I waited for Olivia to respond to my question, when I heard a faint "I have a job" I knew my assumptions were correct. I also knew from past experiences that this wasn't a simple 'job' because Noah had told me she had taken time off. This job must be an unexpected and dangerous one, that's the only reason that would have elicited this response from her and Noah. I knew that she would want to be left alone and cry it out, so I slowly walked out the room and shut the door behind me.

Once I got downstairs I faced Elle, I would have to figure out some sort of lie quickly to tell her. I had done my best to not let Elle find out about this whole situation, as I called it, since I found out by accident when I walked in on Noah and my parents having a conversation about it.

"Lee, what the hell was all that about?"

"You have the same best guess as I do." I replied lying through my teeth.

"Don't hit me with that bullshit Lee. You know what it was, I saw the look between you and Noah earlier." Elle almost screamed at me. I wasn't keeping our rules right now, it hurt me to do so, but it would hurt Elle a whole lot more if she knew the truth.

 _Time to bring out the best of my acting skills_ I thought to myself "All I know is they had an argument about a girl." I thought that was my best bet, with Noah anything to do with other girls was the best way to go.

"Was I the girl?" Elle demand. _Shit I didn't think about that._ I looked at the floor, trying to come up with some sort of excuse to say it wasn't her but time wasn't on my side "oh my god, it was about me." _I have to roll with it now._

"Are you ok?" I asked her as she flew her arms up to her head.

"Yeah. I think so." She said, calming down from her outburst. "I felt as if we were getting along earlier, well before the phone call." I cussed myself again, I totally forgot Elle had heard the initial call. Hopefully she didn't look too far into it.

"Elle, I'm sure it'll blow over. At the party tonight, they'll act like nothing is wrong." I prayed that would happen, or Noah wouldn't turn-up. "Now you need to go home and get changed." I say walking Elle out to the door "I'll see you soon bestie." I say as she started to walk down the long driveway.

"Love you." She waved back. _Okay I was in the clear for now._


	10. Chapter 10

Noah:

After listening to Olivia's phone call and what she said after, I needed to get away and think. As I drove off the driveway I could hear her crying and my heart desperately wanted to turn back. But my head was in charge this time and its stubbornness didn't want to turn back. I rode around LA for the remainder of the day, stopping occasionally to fill up on gas or get food. It was 7pm when I decided to head back home, with my mind clearer of what had happened earlier.

I parked my bike and headed up to my room. Once inside I heard Olivia in the bathroom, the tap was running so I assumed she was getting ready to go in the shower. I peaked my head around the door and saw her wiping her face in the mirror and dancing her hips to the tune on her phone. I walked in and came up behind her, I snaked my hands around her waist and placed my head on her shoulder.

At first, she flinched, not expecting someone to grab her. I knew that she knew it was me, I felt her relax for a second before she became rigid again and moved out of my embrace. "No, you don't get to do that." She said shakily while backing away from me.

"I'm sorry." I replied, the sadness showing in my face as well as my tone. "Loads of thoughts came to my head and I couldn't handle it." I continued, watching her every movement.

I saw her wipe away the tear that had dropped onto her cheek. "You couldn't handle it? Think about me, what I go through every single fucking day!" She was becoming hysterical. "You think I wouldn't love to walk away, leave it all!"

I inched closer with the intention of grabbing her into my arms and not letting go "I know, I'm sorry. This is still new to me. I can't handle the thought of you getting hurt, I need to protect you."

"But you can't, and you know that!" She screamed back, now with cascades of tears flowing down her cheeks.

"It kills me Liv, to know that I can't." I look deep into her eyes, connecting her pupil to mine. We exchanged more that what could be said: I apologised profusely, she let her heart out. In the meantime, I was walking closer still until I placed my hands on her arms which were wrapped around her body. I separated her arms and pulled her onto my body, she melted into me and cried. I wrapped my arms around her to make a protective shield before I shed tears whilst placing sweet delicate kisses to her head. We stayed in the same position until the crying had stopped, and Olivia looked up at me.

"You're not going to leave?" She said, needing reassurance, with tear stains down her face and red eyes.

"I'm not going to leave." I replied back, moving a piece of hair out her face. I then moved my hands to the hem of her t-shirt, slowly pulling it up over her stomach, breasts, neck and head. She didn't react, so I took off my t-shirt and shorts before returning to the beautiful body in front of me. I slowly unbuckled her shorts and slid them down her legs, kissing them as I went, she placed her hands gently on my hair and started ringing her fingers through it. I moved on her bra next, unclipping it with one hand and slowly removing it, making sure to leave my kisses on the soft layer of skin underneath. Before I removed her final piece of clothing, I looked up for permission.

Instead of getting a nod, she hooked her fingers on my boxers and slowly slid the off until they fell to the ground, that was the permission I needed. I walked over to the shower, turned it on before walking back and discarding the final piece of clothing Olivia was wearing. I leaned in for a kiss before taking her hand and leading her to the shower.

Lee:

I was setting up for the party downstairs when I saw Elle walk back in wearing a black dress with lace detail and a pair of small wedges. "I saw Noah's bike in the drive, he's back then?" She asked me while picking up some of the snacks from the bowls I had done.

"I didn't realise. Hang on, I'll got check." I said as I put down the red cups and walked up to Noah's room. I knocked on the door and when there was no answer, I walked in and saw the bathroom door slightly ajar. I walked over to the bathroom and stopped just short of door, I turned my head, so my ear could pick up sounds before I walked in a possibly saw what I didn't want to. I heard the shower running and music playing in the back ground, I couldn't hear anyone speaking though so I decided to call out to my brother. "Noah? Are you in there." Behind the door I heard a giggle, definitely Olivia, followed by some colourful language, definitely Noah.

"Lee, get lost!" I heard Noah shout from what sounded like the shower. My imagination didn't need much help, I knew exactly what was going on in the bathroom. I quickly turned around before slamming the door and running down the stairs back to Elle.

From the horrified look on my face, she knew "you didn't walk in on them?" She asked aghast.

"No! No, got to door that was it." I hurriedly said, trying and failing to remove the mental picture from my mine. Elle laughed at what I said, though me being her best friend since birth, I recognised that it wasn't a simple laugh, it hid hurt.

Noah:

For a while after getting out the shower, I laid on my bed with a towel around my waist, staring at the ceiling thinking about what I almost lost. Olivia was sat on the floor in front of my mirror applying make-up for the party tonight. I sat up and watched her finish off her eyes "what are you wearing tonight?" I asked her.

"In your closet the dress nearest the door." She replied not looking away from the mirror and starting to do her hair.

I walked into my closet and quickly found the dress she was talking about. It was a pastel blue spaghetti strap dress with a criss-cross in the back. It also had a slight cut out near the bottom which I assumed would be at her lower back when she put it on. I could tell already that I was going to need some serious control tonight if she was wearing this. _Though,_ I bargained _there will be all the guys staring at her_. That would absolutely be enough to control me.

I got changed into a button-down shirt, without doing up the last few buttons and some short light chinos. Olivia finished up her hair and got changed into the dress in the closet, I was putting on my shoes when I heard her call for me.

"Can you help me with the straps?" I walked over and looked at her back.

"They're fine." I said confused.

"No, I can feel that they're not the right way up" I look back and notice that some had twisted, I turned them all the right way before placing my hands on her hips and twisting her, so she was facing me. I physically gulped and started thinking about my grandma to control myself. "Like what you see." Olivia piped up when she saw my reaction. I nodded, no words were going to come out of my mouth, "well if you behave tonight, by that I mean keep your hands to yourself, maybe later you can take it off?" She looked at me battering her eyelids making her look sexy as hell. I knew she was talking about fights, this girl knew me so well and I wouldn't jeopardise what we had for a make-out with another girl.

~#~#~#~

We got a little side-tracked in my room so by the time me and Olivia had made it downstairs, the party was in full swing. I saw guys from my football team by the couch that Lee and Elle must have drug outside and went to join them. As soon as we got over to the couch Tuppen shouted over the top of everyone "hey Flynn, who's the hottie on your side."

I looked across as Olivia, her nervous smile almost made me pick her up and take her back to my room. Instead I would have to made it clear to everyone that she is spoken for "a type of girl you'll never get in your life Tuppen." I felt a nudge in myside before I felt Olivia moving away from my hand.

"Olivia." She said confidently in front of the guys before she turned to me "can you get me a drink?" I nodded my head before giving the guys a stern look and going to find some alcohol for my girl.

I found a table with numerous bottles on it and spotted the Southern Comfort, empty _fantastic_ I thought. I looked around more until I saw the Bacardi; Southern Comfort and Bacardi were Olivia's soft spots. She could keep going on them all night. I got myself a beer from the ice bucket before heading back to the guys, where I noticed Olivia sitting on the coffee table talking to them. Instantly I thought I'd better get over there quickly, I started moving faster until a blonde girl came into my line of vision, I think it was Olivia from the OMG girls, but I wasn't sure in the relative darkness. "Noah, where are you trying to go so quick?"

"To the guys, do you mind?" I said in annoyance. She refused to move and then reached up to grab the drink I was holding for Liv. "That is not yours." I said, quickly moving the drink out her reach. She compensated by pushing her body onto mine and standing on her toes, I looked at her face, I couldn't remember her name, but I knew what was coming next. I moved my head back but before it could go any further, I felt someone take the cup out of my hand and smash their mouth onto mine. As my mind caught up with my body, I realised that Liv was kissing me, and the other girl had backed up staring at us both.

We parted lips, Olivia took a drink then turned to the girl "If your done flirting, this guy is needed." She grabbed the bottom of my shirt and almost pulled me away, luckily no-one noticed that she had pulled me, that would have my reputation thrown out the door.

Once we were far enough away from the girl, I whispered "I don't deny that was hot. But my reputation please." I watched as Olivia laughed and walked a few steps ahead. We re-joined the group of guys and played drinking games for the rest of the night.

~#~#~#~

It was around 2am when I noticed that I hadn't seen Olivia in a while, she said she was going to the toilet but had never come back. I wasn't scared about her getting into bad situations, she could probably even take me down in a fight, I was more worried about her job tomorrow and while I could I wanted to make sure she was safe. I left the guys and went to find her. I could pick her out of room with what she was wearing, my eyes were drawn to it. I eventually found her stood with Elle and the OMG girls. The OMGs spotted me before had chance to turn away.

"Flynn, Flynn over here!" I looked at them as saw Olivia and Elle's amused faces. I walked over and smiled at them. "We heard that you haven't got with anyone recently? Want to change that?" the tall brunette one asked me, I could not remember names tonight.

I looked over to Olivia who now looked even more amused, she raised an eyebrow before speaking "you haven't got with anyone recently Flynn?"

I smirked over at her before turning back to the OMGs "girls, hate to disappoint but I got some before the party started." I winked in the direction of Olivia and Elle, who both dissolved into laughter. "I'd also say that I'll probably be getting more later on too." I noticed Olivia stop laughing, her face turned really serious, _Shit, I had messed up_.

"Suppose you'll have to find someone quick then." Olivia deadpanned before walking away.

"Shit." I muttered, I looked back at the OMGs and Elle, all of whom were gobsmacked, before I took off following Olivia.

~#~#~#~

I couldn't keep up with her, so I reached my room seconds after she had walked in. I shut the door behind me and propped up a chair I had against it, so no-one would disturb us. Olivia began shouting at me before she had even turned around. "Do you think it's okay to talk about me like that! Like I'm just there for when you need me."

"Of course, I don't. You were laughing!" I reminded her in an accusing tone.

"Yeah, before you referenced me as your fuck buddy." I was doing my best not to smile now. Olivia still in the pastel blue dress, the material hugging her perfectly and now she was angry. I was getting really turned on. "You think this is funny?" She demanded.

"It's hot!" I replied, with now the physical evidence of my arousal showing. I watched as she looked down at my crotch and suddenly a smile appeared on her face.

"It's hot?" She repeated, I nodded. She walked up to me and pulled my face onto her lips, this kiss was different to the recent ones we had shared, this one was filled with anger, desire and power. As we fought for dominance, she won and then walked me to the bed and straddled herself on top of me. "I can get hotter than that babe. You're going to do exactly what I say." I took a sharp breath in as she worked down to my shorts.


	11. Chapter 11

Noah:

I sat at my desk in my English class, the last class of the day, staring at the clock watching the hands tick over the seconds. It was only a Thursday, but I had already decided that I will be 'sick' tomorrow, at the moment I couldn't be bothered with school. I was keeping my grades up but everything else seemed petty and childish. We had been back to school less than a week, Olivia still hadn't returned from her job from the middle of spring break and I was on edge. Everyone could tell, people were avoiding me and those who did have courage to come and talk to me were quickly made assured that I didn't want to talk to them.

As soon as the bell rang I jumped up and almost ran to the door, I had heard through the grape vine today at lunch that Mia from the OMG girls was planning on catching me after school. I knew what she meant but I had no time for her, I wanted to get home and be available for if Olivia was to call me; she hadn't yet but I made sure to always be free to talk to her. I jumped on my bike and sped off, I had removed my phone from silent just as I got on the bike.

I had made it home with no phone call, now it was time to stay at home waiting for her to call. I hadn't heard from her for a week, so naturally I was worried and concerned as ever. She had updated me with texts for the first few days, but since then I had heard nothing.

I walked into the house and I saw both my parents sat down with a tall, blonde guy in a suit. When they saw me walk in, they motioned for me to join them.

"Noah, come here honey." My mom said tapping the space next to her. I was dubious about what was going to take place, my mind then shifted to what if this is the talk where they tell me something has happened to Olivia. As my mind wandered, I felt my mom place her arm around me as I sat down. "This is Sam. He has a thing to say to you." I knew who Sam was, he was Olivia boss. I could also read the apprehension in everyone's demeanour.

"Noah," Same began while looking directly at me "as you know Olivia got given a job around 2 weeks ago." I nodded, here we go. I braced myself for the news that she was dead or horrifically injured. "What we originally thought was small turned into something big. It's taken a lot more effort to control it than we planned. But we recently got further intelligence, that we managed to intercept before it got to the intended recipients."

"What was it?" I asked concern filling my body.

"It was about you." I was shocked, Sam looked at both my parents again before continuing "because of this, until this is sorted you need to come with me."

This time I looked at my parents before turning back to Sam "go with you?"

"Yes, we can keep you safe."

"What about my family." I wasn't leaving them in danger.

"Don't worry they are perfectly safe, the intelligence was gathered was from a beach, we couldn't tell which one. It only involved the back of you and you couldn't see your head. We're just trying to be safe than sorry." The beach, that was a fun day that me and Olivia spent being teenagers, hanging out and spending time together, now it has lead to this.

My dad then spoke up "you need to go pack a bag." He looked over to Sam for reassurance "you need to leave soon." I dropped my head and got up, my mom followed me up to my room.

I grabbed a duffle bag and began throwing clothes on the bed. My mom folded them and placed them in the duffle. Once we had both finished added my stuff into the bag my mom turns to me with tears in her eyes "be careful, and text me every day." I embraced her and agreed to do so. We hugged for a while before we went back downstairs to leave, I hugged my dad and told them not to tell Lee, which they agreed to with no second thought, I guess that had already been discussed.

As I left in the car with Sam, I watched my house disappear into the distance. Once I was sure I couldn't see it any more, I turned to Sam "So where are we going?"

He looked over at me for a second before turning his eyes back to the road and started speaking "London. The plane is leaving in an hour. Please don't talk to me, I'd like to make the departure time."

I was in shock, _I am going to London?_ I had only been to the Caribbean and Mexico on vacations and now I was going to London. For a moment I forgot why and basked in the excitement.

~#~#~#~

We had managed to make the plane and 12 hours later we landed in London. We got ushered through security and baggage reclaim like celebrities and soon we were in a car with blacked out windows.

"Where are we going now?" I asked Sam again who was messaging someone on his phone.

"To where you're staying." He said while not bothering to look up from his phone. I was getting angry with this guys attitude; _how obnoxious could you be?_ If this was any other guy I would have already demanded to know what his problem is, but since I knew what he did for a living I knew it was best not too.

After being stuck in the car for what felt like hours with the London traffic, we finally pulled into an underground garage filled with expensive toys. I grabbed my bag out the trunk and followed Sam to the elevator. It took us up to the 10th floor before coming to a stop, we stepped out and I once again followed Sam down the hallway to an unassuming door.

He knocked a few times before unlocking the door and walking in. I was still stood in the doorway, my legs not willing to move. Sam turned back to me with a look of annoyance "are you coming in?"

"Ur, yeah." I replied taking cautious steps into the unknown apartment. The décor was very traditional yet modern, from inside the door I could see an open-plan living space, kitchen, dining table and doors off to either side. It looked nice, I then saw a guy walk out one of the rooms, just in gym shorts. He was the same height as me and had slightly more muscle. He had short blonde hair and I noticed a scar that travelled down his neck.

"Chris, Noah. Noah, Chris." Sam said abruptly, introducing me to the stranger "Where is she?" He then asked Chris.

"In the room." He pointed to the closed door he had just come out of. Once Sam had disappeared behind the door Chris turned to me. "Noah, huh?"

"Yeah, I prefer to go by Flynn." I replied bluntly.

"I know. I'm not going to call you that though, I know you well enough to call you Noah." Then it clicked, this was Chris as in Olivia's 'partner'. That would mean that Olivia is somewhere nearby. "How was your flight with grumpy?" Chris continued.

"It was ok."

"He's not mad with you." I raised an eyebrow "well, he's not really mad at you. He's mad about the situation that lead to going to get you. He's stressed at the moment, take it lightly, it's not just you." Chris chuckled before walking over to the fridge and grabbing a green carton "want a drink?" I shook my head.

Just then Sam reappeared in the living area "Chris I'm leaving now, take care of this one." He said looking over at me "remember what we talked about." Chris nodded, and Sam walked out the apartment. Chris followed him and locked the door behind him.

"Why'd you lock the door?" I asked.

"Precaution." He replied, "you can go into the room and put your stuff away." He pointed to the door that I had just witness Chris and Sam walk in and out of.

I went into the room, at first, I didn't notice anything. I threw my bag onto the bed and unzipped it. I then went over to the side of the bed nearest what I assumed was the bathroom, opened the bedside draw and saw a pile of female underwear. I stared at it for a second before I heard the bathroom door unlock, so I quickly slammed the draw shut. I was too late though as I heard a voice behind me "You're here for 5 minutes tops and you're already going through my underwear?"

There was an amusement in the voice and I could tell immediately who it was. I spun round to be faced with Olivia in black jeans and a pale pink jumper. "Liv?" I questioned breathlessly.

"Yeah." She replied in a sweet almost uncertain tone. This time my legs were moving without instructions from my brain before I knew it I lifted her into the air and slammed my lips onto hers. "Stop, stop, stop." I placed her back on the floor.

"I missed you, you didn't call or text?" I said in response.

"I know I'm sorry, but I couldn't" I sighed a heavy breath "tonight I'm making it up to you." She said with a twinkle in her eye "but first I have to go to a meeting. I'll be back soon." She moved up to kiss me before she walked out, said bye to Chris and I heard the door being unlocked then closed.

Once I had put the remaindered of my clothes away, I wrote out a text for my mom.

 **Noah: Hey, mom. Just texting you to say I made it safe. I love you xx**

I was never really one to say the last part to my mom, but in light of recent events it came out naturally. I threw my phone down on the bed before going out to speak to Chris.

Before I could say anything, Chris spoke up "glad to be back with Liv?" He asked while winking at me.

I let out a small laugh "yeah, it's nice." He then laughed before I continued "what are you doing today?"

"Well, Liv is in a meeting until late so probably doing a bit of work while watching football." I nodded, I had left with school work that I had to complete so we both sat in front of the TV with international ESPN on watching a football game.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I officially finished the year at university so in a kind of celebration I thought I'd release this chapter. I hope you enjoy it! x**

* * *

Lee:

I rolled over on my bed and bumped into a hard lump. I opened my eyes and saw that Elle was sleeping soundly next to me. I turned to look at the clock, it was 6am on a Saturday, I groaned and turned back over. I must have fallen asleep again because I woke up to the bed moving. I turned back to see Elle with a bowl of cereal, sitting on my bed.

"When did you get here?" I asked her.

"I don't know, 1am maybe. I couldn't sleep." I nodded, this was not an unusual event for Elle to come late at night and sleep in my bed. "Let's play a game on the console." She said, pointing to the Xbox under my TV.

I smiled at her, before getting up to turn on the TV "what game do you want to play?" I asked, knew that it would be GTA5 because she loved the driving aspect of the game.

"GTA, like normal."

I looked for it in my stack but couldn't find it, "I think it's in Noah's room." I said before walking out the door, Elle followed me down the hall and to his room.

We walked in and saw the bed unmade and everything cleaned up, as if no-one lived here. "This is weird," Elle spoke first "you know what, I haven't actually seen him since Thursday when he rushed out of school."

"You and me same. I haven't seen him since then." I looked around the room trying to find the game. I opened a few drawers that normally held his boxers. "Hey, all his boxers have gone?" I said to Elle beckoning her over.

"This is really weird." Elle repeated, herself looking around.

That is when we saw my mom walk into the room "what are you doing in here?" She asked us with a slight panic.

"Ur … looking for a game, Mom. But where is Noah?" I said while motioning to the room, so she understood what I was talking about.

"Oh, he's joined Olivia somewhere on vacation. I'm taking the opportunity to clean." She replied in an almost rehearsed manner. "But there are no games in here, I moved then out to downstairs." She continued.

"Oh, ok. Thanks mom." I said as me and Elle walked out. We were a few steps away from the door when I turned to Elle "this is not right." She nodded in agreement. Something had happened.

Noah:

I had been in London for a day. Last night Olivia took me out to a nice restaurant in the city, we ate, drank, got back to the apartment and was louder than we should have been. I knew it was the morning because there was sunlight beaming in from the window, I picked up a pillow and threw it over my face.

I then felt it being removed and replaced by cold hands. I snapped my eyes open to be greeted by Olivia's face hovering over mine. "Morning, sleeping beauty." She quipped. I grabbed her hips before she moved and pulled her on top of me "Noah …." She dragged out my name in protest, so I started kissing up her neck. Eventually reaching her lips, we connected. My hands began roaming around her body before they were grabbed by her hands "not now, I have to go." She said looking at me with sadness "you'll be here alone, are you ok with that?" She asked me with apprehension.

"Of course! As long as you're back tonight." I replied watching her face turn up into a smile, she shook her head yes. I kissed her again before she said goodbye and walked out the door. I heard the front door lock before I decided to get up, put some boxers on and venture into the living space.

As soon as I reached the kitchen I saw a post-it note stuck to the fridge.

 _'_ _There is food in the fridge, the doorman can point you in the direction of the store if you need to. Try not to burn the place down.'_

I chuckled slightly, it reminded me of the time my parents had left me in charge of Lee for the evening, which also meant I was in charge of Elle because she pretty much lived at our house. I walked over to the fridge, opened it and saw a variety of food but nothing that I wanted so I decided to adventure onto the streets of London to look for something I wanted to eat.

~#~#~#~

I was out of the apartment for around 3 hours, browsing in different shops grabbing some food, I picked up some alcohol because I was legal here and headed back. Once inside I took a bag of chips out and a can of beer and sat in front of the TV, flicking through channels and channels of British TV. I came across a movie channel where Rambo was playing so I decided to watch that. Once it had finished, I realised that the sequel was on next, so I grabbed another snack and drink and settled in to watch that one too.

It was around 10pm now, I hadn't got a text all day from Olivia or Chris. I was starting to get worried because she had said they'll be back tonight and it was now pitch-black outside. I wasn't overly worried though because it still was tonight, I decided to let myself get worried if they're not back by 1am. In the meantime, I had run out of TV that I wanted to watch so I decided to have a look around the apartment.

I went into the kitchen and opened cabinet after cabinet, the normal sort of things were there, plates, cups, utensils. So, I moved onto an 'office' area that consisted of two desks with drawers. I immediately could see that one of them was Chris's as it had a photo of him and a brunette girl smiling to each other. _That must be Ava_ I said to myself. I turned my attention to the other desk, there wasn't much on top of it, so I tried to open the draw. _Locked._ Okay, that is another area of the apartment down. The next place where I could find something would be the bedroom, not Chris's because again I didn't want to over step boundaries, but I thought if I'm staying in the room then it is my room and it wasn't snooping. I was desperate to find something interesting that would entertain me because so far, this place had becoming very boring very quickly.

I walked into the bedroom and went straight over to the closet. I went through all of Olivia's clothes, clothes I had never seen before. I got to the end of the pack when I saw a beautiful Givenchy ball-gown just hung up in her closet. I wondered where she had worn this, but I also thought about her getting to try it on for me, I had no doubt that if it looked this beautiful on a hanger, it would look absolutely stunning on my girl.

As I put the gown back into the closet, I saw that it got caught on something on the floor. I bent down and pulled out a black box that was quite heavy. I opened the lid and saw a collection of photos and handwritten letters. I took a look through the photos and saw that they were of me, Olivia, and us together, memories I had completely forgotten about. When I delved deeper into the box and pulled out letters, I realised that these were unsent with my name and address on the front. I was curious, who could blame me, so I decided that I would read the one on the top to see what it said.

 _Noah,_

 _I'm sorry. I never meant to leave like I did, I wish I came to your house and explained it all. But I was a coward, I thought it would be easier to leave without explanation. I was wrong, so wrong. I write to you every week, I tell you about my week, what I have done and how much I miss you. I can never bring myself to send them, they all sit with me with the hope I'll one day have enough courage to mail them to you._

 _If you're reading this letter, that means that I did send them all and I hope you're reading them with happiness and not pain that I have caused. Also, if you're reading this I want you to forget about me and live your life. I don't deserve to hold a place in your heart anymore._

 _All my love in the world,_

 _Olivia x_

I hadn't realised that I had started crying while reading the letter. I looked over to the others in the box and estimated there was around 100 letters, she must have stopped writing them a while ago, it was probably too painful to carry on.

In the midst of reading the letter, crying and thinking, I hadn't heard the door unlock and people walk in. I was too much in my own bubble I only realised someone was there when I heard a faint gasp coming from the door. I looked over with my tear-stained eyes and saw Olivia there, also crying.

"Liv." I said quietly. She walked closer to me before dropping to her knees, now with tears flooding down her face and she was trying desperately to put everything back in the box. I placed my hand on top of hers to make her stop.

"Why did you read these?" She asked, her face and body language filled with pain. "Why?" She hysterically asked again.

I didn't reply, I just pulled her close and enclosed my arms around her. I sniffed in a slight smell of fire radiating off her hair. Eventually, Olivia pulled away from my embrace "have you read them all?" she asked, calming down from her crying.

I wiped a fallen tear off her cheek before replying "only this one." I said holding up the one that I had read "I don't need to read the rest." She nodded and cried some more "Why didn't you send them?"

"I didn't want to cause you anymore pain than I already had. I didn't want you to reply to me, I didn't want to hear how much you hated me."

I studied her face, my eyes trying to convey the message that my mouth was about to say, "I never hated you, I wanted to know why." I watched as she looked down in shame as she gathered the last few items, placed them in the box with the lid on and then put the box back where I had found it.

I knew in this moment, that there was nothing else to say to each other, so I got up picked up Olivia and placed her on the bed. I took off her clothes and got out a sleep romper from her drawers. I helped her put it one before I got undressed myself and climbed into bed with her. I pulled her close, engulfing her small frame in my arms.


	13. Chapter 13

Elle:

We had been back to school since spring break for 4 weeks now, and it was 3 weeks since Noah had left with no explanation. At first his mom said he'd gone on vacation with Olivia, but since he'd hadn't come back, we knew she was lying. To top it all off Lee had been acting strange, he was spending less and less time at his house which meant I hardly spent time with him. The only time I got was our DDR session we had after school on Fridays. It was 3pm on the Friday of week 4, I was getting excited to meet up with Lee after school because I hadn't seen him since last Friday. It wasn't entirely his fault, we had both been really busy with school stuff and trying to increase our personal profiles for college applications next year, that we had simply forgot about spending time together.

As soon as the bell rang, I rushed out and greeted Lee outside his Mustang." Ready for some awesome dance moves?" I asked excitedly while getting into the car.

"Actually Elle, can we go to my place today. I have something to show you."

"Oh, sure." I watched him closely as he drove towards his house, he looked nervous for some reason.

Once we arrived I soon found out why, Noah's bike which had been sat at the side of the garage for weeks had disappeared along with his helmet, and maintenance gear. "Where is Noah's bike?" I asked Lee in a panic, Noah's bike being gone lead to it being more real that Noah himself was gone and he wasn't close to me.

Lee looked over to where the bike used to be and then looked at the floor "just wait." He said leading me into the house. I was confused, the bike was gone, and Lee was leading me towards Noah's room.

He opened the door to the room had I had been in so many times and I was shocked. All of Noah's posters were gone, his stuff was gone, the bed sheets had been changed to lighter colours. The whole room looked and felt different. I stared at it for a while trying to get my head around it "Lee?" I questioned, wanting him to give me more answers. Instead, he lead me to Noah's walk-in closet, most of his clothes had gone and the ones that remained were the suit he wore to my mom's funeral, some clothes from when he was a kid and his red stripped biker jacket. I felt myself tear-up. "Where is all his stuff?" I asked Lee again.

He looked as upset as I did, "I had to show you, this is why I've been avoiding home. He's gone." Lee dropped onto the bed and placed his head into his hands, I joined him wrapping my arms around his body and holding him.

"What do you mean he's gone?" I ask shakily.

Lee looked up to me "he wasn't on vacation with Olivia, he never went on vacation with her."

I was shocked, he had just left? "Did your parents know?"

As soon as I said that Lee seemed to calm down slightly "yeah, they didn't tell me though until I came home one night and saw them in this room packing things up. They lied to me."

It was almost as if his mom had heard him speaking about her because she appeared at the door, she watched us for a second before walking over and crouching in front of us. "Lee, Elle come downstairs we need to talk to you." I nodded, immediately getting up, meanwhile Lee took some force to drag him off the bed. We were walking towards the stairs when I turned back and saw Mrs. Flynn slowly close the door with a longing look into her eldest son's bedroom.

In the formal living area, Mr. Flynn was waiting opposite the couch he directed us to sit on. Mrs. Flynn joined him, both of them opposite us.

"You've seen his room?" Mr Flynn began, we both nodded "we thought it's better if we try and explain some of it." We nodded again, grabbing each other's hands and tightly squeezing. "Noah has left, he won't be coming back for a while. When he does come back he won't live here anymore."

"Have you kicked him out?" Lee asked, hurt plastered across his face.

"Absolutely not!" Mrs Flynn interjected "he is our son as much as you are. He will be able to stay over here, but he has moved out."

"To where?" Lee asked.

"Olivia's LA house." She replied, carefully watching for Lee's reaction, he just let a massive breath out and accepted it. Then a look of panic suddenly came across his face, luckily, he had always been a mama's boy, so Mrs. Flynn knew exactly what he was thinking "he is with Olivia right now, don't worry."

Lee had come to the end of his questions and his parents looked like they were finished, but I had more questions than answers. "I'm confused? Where is he, what is he doing." I rushed the words out in the same breath.

I watched as the Flynn's all looked at each other before Mr Flynn finally spoke up "Elle, Olivia has a very demanding job which means that she doesn't have control over where she is or where she goes. Noah needed to be with her."

That kind of made sense but I still had tones of questions, "but she said she was staying till the end of summer?"

"Some unexpected events happened which meant she had to leave earlier, Noah went to join her 3 weeks ago." 3 weeks ago was when I last saw him, running out the school on a Thursday.

"What about his school work?" I felt like I was his mom or girlfriend, asking all these questions but he was my friend and I cared about him, I needed to know he was ok.

"It's all taken care of, don't worry. You two need to focus on your school work and being teenagers, let us worry about Noah." Mr Flynn looked between us both waiting for us to nod. When he finally did he indicated that this 'talking' session had ended, and we could go.

Me and Lee almost ran to his car, desperate to go somewhere other than here. We were driving alone the road; the palm trees were swaying in the gusts of wind. We had stopped at a traffic light before I began to speak "I don't know about you, but I can't just go on with my life as if he never existed. I need to find out what has happened. I don't care if you hate me for it or …." I got interrupted by Lee.

"Elle, I agree with you. I need to know what was happened too." Me and Lee connected eyes for a second before he continued "to find out what has happened, I need to tell you what I know about Olivia." My head popped up at that, he said it in a way that indicated that she was more than a simple girl living in LA with a boyfriend. He said it in a way which was telling that she had some dark secrets.

Inside my body jumped with excitement, I had had a feeling all along that something was off, and I was proved correct. Now Lee was going to tell me, so we could start our investigation to find Noah.


	14. Chapter 14

Lee:

After letting loose with some DDR with Elle, I decided it was time to tell her about Olivia, so we got back into the mustang and drove to a small pull-in overlooking the ocean. I placed the car into park, undid my seat belt and turned to my best friend.

"So, Olivia." Elle said to prompt me.

"Olivia." I replied in an almost breathless tone.

I went through and told Elle all that I knew, the sort of lifestyle she leads, how she was never in the same place for very long. I told her how I knew it took a toll on her; me and Olivia had once had a heart to heart about her life and how it affects Noah. I also mentioned that I didn't know exactly what she did, but I knew that around a year ago she was involved in a pretty nasty situation and ended up in hospital for a few weeks with multiple wounds. I told Elle that Noah didn't know about that, I also stressed that it was important she kept that to herself and not tell Noah.

"Noah also went to counselling after she left last time." I said, finishing off telling Elle all that I knew.

"I know he went to counselling." She replied, "had no clue it was about Olivia." She looked taken aback "he told me it was to do with his fights?" She questioned me.

I knew that they must have spoken about his fights when they were keeping their relationship from me, but I would never have thought that he would have told her about the counselling because I knew it only brought up bad memories of Olivia and our parents. Elle must have sensed my shock that she knew, she gave me silence while I thought what to say next. "Yes, it was bad when she left last time which is why the fights became more intense and frequent, don't you remember when he was fighting like multiple times a day?" Elle nodded "so the counsellor helped him bring it down to a few a week." I slightly laughed, Noah and fighting were like a PB&J sandwich, they just went together.

~#~#~#~

"How come I never met Olivia?" Elle asked me once I had started driving back towards the house.

"As kids he always hung out at hers and I rarely saw her. The only time I can really remember meeting her is about 5 years ago when I came home from our DDR session and saw them walking out the house together. I still think it's strange I never really saw her, like you almost live at my house and they had the same sort of relationship we did as kids."

"Yeah …" I felt Elle drift off, I looked over and watched for a second as she stared into the traffic on the other side of the barriers. I knew in that moment she was thinking about Noah more than him being her best friend's brother. I sighed.

Olivia:

The past 3, almost 4, weeks with Noah being close to me has been a godsend. I knew that he would be there when I came back from trying to sort this mess out, he would comfort me, make me laugh and be available to talk long into the morning hours. I had been out on a job for 5 days last week and it was tough as I had gotten used to sleeping curled into Noah's body, his arms around me like a safe cocoon. Another reason why I missed Noah during the 5 days was because I started to feel really ill, all throughout the day I felt like I'd throw-up any second.

Once me and Chris had made it back to the apartment in London, I went straight to my bed and curled into a foetus position. I inhaled the familiar scent, laundry detergent and whiffs of Noah. I stayed in the same position until my body indicated that it was time to rush to the bathroom to throw-up in the toilet. I was in the middle of dry heaving when I felt someone pull my hair back and placed their hand on the middle of my back, slowly moving in circles. I finished dry heaving into the toilet before looked up to who was comforting me, it was Noah; who looked like he had just come back in from a run or the gym. "Are you all right?" he asked me with concern.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine" I said, trying to pull myself off the floor before another wave of nausea hits. I walked over to the sink to wash my mouth out, in the mirror I saw Noah looking even more concerned than he did a few seconds ago. "I said I'm fine." I snapped at him, he was taken aback.

It took less than a second before he snapped back "you're clearly not fine. Why won't you let me take care of you?"

I closed my eyes, I gathered myself for a minute before turning back around to face him "I don't want to be dependant on anyone." I said, staring directly into his eyes.

"But that is what couples are supposed to do! Care for each other!" Noah was getting really angry now. I folded my arms across my chest and was aware that my body language suddenly screamed 'defensive', "don't get defensive! You're the one who asked me, you're the one who wanted to be together."

I felt my eyes well up "so you don't want to be together, is that what you're saying?" I tried my best to come across strong, but my voice faltered. I thought I must be due a period because I would never get this emotional over a little thing like what was happening at this moment.

I watched as Noah's anger began to diminish "I didn't say that." He said in a softer tone than previously.

"But you did Noah, you said I was the one who wanted us to be together." I gestured to us both "if you want to leave just leave." I finished before I raced back to the toilet bowl to dry heave some more. Again, I felt Noah holding my hair and rubbing my back. He was silent until I finished, he then whispered, "I'm not leaving." I started to cry, once again my stupid defences had caused yet another argument, all because I refused to let him care for me.

I turned around on the floor and hugged him, I needed to feel close to him, so I began kissing his neck, working my way up to sucking on his earlobe. He responded by pulling away, I looked into his eyes silently asking what's wrong. "You're sure you feel ok?" I nodded but I could tell he still wasn't sure "you've been dry heaving pretty much all week" I raised my eyebrow, "Chris told me." I nodded again "you're not fine." He said while running his hand through my hair and slowly moving a strand to frame my face. I moved closer to him, resting my head against his chest "I don't want to until you've seen a doctor about it. It's not normal Liv."

That frustrated me, he knew I didn't like going to the doctors, so he was withholding what I needed until I went. _Two can play at that game_ I thought to myself as I got up and walked into the bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. The next chapter coming has a big plot twist! It'll be released soon so stay tuned! x**


	15. Chapter 15

Olivia:

That night after Noah rejected me earlier I thought it was a perfect time to give him a taste of his own medicine. I had managed to eat a few crackers which didn't make me throw-up, so I ran a bath to fully relax. I got into the bath and sunk down so the bubbles and water were up to my neck. I had purposely left the door open, so I could see Noah and he could see me, I saw him sat on the edge of the bed glancing at me from the side of his eye. I moved my leg up, so it was poking out the top of the water and I slowly dragged my hand down it, I smiled to myself when I saw Noah readjusting himself on the bed. I continued making suggestive movements until he finally cracked and walked into the bathroom, taking each item of clothing off as he took a step.

Before I knew it, he had gotten in the bath behind me and his hands were roaming over my stomach and continued further up. I allowed him to continue but as soon as his hands got to the underneath of my breast, I quickly shot up and got out the bath. I placed a towel around my body before turning towards the bath and smiling at his unhappy face. "Tough luck, maybe next time." I teased as I sauntered out the bathroom purposely swinging my hips and dropping the towel ever so slightly. I heard Noah cuss to himself before the door slammed shut.

Later on that evening, I was bundled up in bed casually browsing online sales. Since teasing him, Noah had made a point of ignoring me and spent most of his time taking to Chris. Chris of course knew what was happening and found it hilarious. It was around 11:30pm when Noah came into the bedroom, got undressed and climbed into the king-sized bed. "You can't deny me for ever." He said running his hand across my arm under the covers.

"You want to bet?" I replied, not taking me eyes off the laptop screen.

"Liv …" he said in an exhaustive tone, a tone he knew got to me. "Tomorrow, just book an appointment and I'll come with you. You could be making yourself worse by not getting medical attention." His hand moved from under the covers to stroking my hair.

"Why do you care so much about it?" I asked him, finally looking at him in the eyes. He didn't answer, instead he removed his hand from me completely and turned to face the ceiling. "Tell me" I pushed, this time I moved my hand to his hair because it had finally clicked that there must be a big reason why he was desperate for me to go to a doctor. A reason he was scared of.

He rolled his head to face me, his body staying in the same position as before, "one of Elle's mom's first symptoms was nausea that was there all day, she couldn't even move herself out the bathroom some days." Noah's eyes slowly began darkening. "I'm just being cautious."

I stared at him, finally understanding. He had been really close with Elle's mom, possibly closer to her and he was with his own Mom when he was younger, she always cared for him when his parents had work commitments. "Okay, I'll go tomorrow." I conceded.

He nodded and moved his body, so he was completely facing me, "thank you." He kissed me slowly on the lips. I responded by kissing him a bit deeper, he then started roaming my body with his hands, grabbing my bum and squeezing it. I pulled back.

"I'm still mad at you." I said turning around so my back was facing me. He groaned, and I couldn't help but snicker slightly. I felt him shuffle closer to me and wrap himself around me, placing his hands on my stomach. He gave me a goodnight kiss before I slipped into unconsciousness.

~#~#~#~

In the morning I had managed to book an appointment for 11am and due to my normal overestimation of times, Noah and I ended up at the office 20 minutes before the appointment time. Also, to top it off the doctor was running another 20 minutes behind schedule, _fantastic._

We waited for almost an hour in the end before my name was called. We both got up and walked back to the treatment room. Before we walked in the door, I knocked and waited for the 'come in'.

"Hi. Olivia?" A female doctor probably in her early 40s asked.

"Yeah." I replied, "This is my boyfriend." I motioned to Noah. The doctor smiled, nodded and motioned for us to take a seat.

"I'm doctor Kotter. What can I help you with today?"

"For the past week now, I have been feeling really sick and vomiting a lot. I've barely been able to eat anything so most of it has been dry heaving." I explained.

"Okay." The doctor typed out details into the computer before continuing "have you done something different or changed your lifestyle recently?"

"Not really, been a little stressed but nothing more than normal." I was careful not to let too much slip, a practice I had mastered over the years.

"Okay." She typed something down again. She paused for a moment then looked between Noah and myself "are you on any sort of contraception?"

"I'm on the pill." I replied, franticly going over in my mind to see if I had forgotten it one day.

It seemed like she read my mind "have you forgotten a day?"

"No. I take that thing religiously." I replied not daring to look at Noah who I knew was looking at me. I knew for sure that I never missed a day because I was terrified of the consequences if I did.

I was starting to get panicked "it's okay" the doctor said while smiling "don't panic, we're going to get some bloods done now to check everything is in order." Before I took in what she was saying, she began getting the equipment out a drawer.

"Oh, right now." I stated to no-one in particular. I finally looked at Noah. He was pale, which probably mirrored my face, and he looked worried. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight.

~#~#~#~

My blood was taken quickly and soon we were out of the office and walking back to the apartment. We were walking along in silence, both of us probably thinking about what would happen next.

Noah was the first to speak "so, do you think it'll be nothing?"

I looked at the ground, something inside me was saying it would be but something was also saying it wouldn't, I didn't know what to think. "I'm not sure." The words stumbled out my mouth and Noah caught onto the fact that I was scared as hell in this moment.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kissed the side of my head "whatever is the outcome, I'll always be here for you. You know that." I nodded and let a small tear seep out the corner of my eye. Noah must have seen it escape as he held me tighter as we walked.

~#~#~#

The rest of the morning and afternoon, me and Noah sat in our bedroom watching TV and occasionally bringing up what may happen. When it was brought up, we were both too scared to imagine what the future would hold either way.

My phone rang at 4pm on the dot. I saw it was the doctor's surgery, so I grabbed Noah's arm and squeezed my hardest, meanwhile Noah placed his arm on my back slowly going in circles.

"Hi, is this Olivia?" a female on the other side asked.

"Yes, I'm Olivia." I replied.

"Your blood test has come back positive. Can you come to the office tomorrow at 2pm for a full check?"

I'm pretty sure all the colour had drained from my face "uh, yeah sure."

"Ok. Thank you." She said before the line went dead.

I stared into the distance, conscious that any movement I make would cause myself to breakdown. Noah, instead, had different ideas. He moved so he was in front of me and looked directly into my eyes, it snapped me out of where ever I had gone, and I knew what he wanted to know.

Yet again my mouth failed me, I tried to get the words out, but I couldn't. So, I did the next best thing, I grabbed a hold of his hand and franticly nodded. He immediately understood, and I cried.

* * *

 **A/N: This is 'officially' the end of this book. There is one more mini-chapter to go that sets up events for a sequel. I hope you liked it, and the sequel will hopefully be out soon! x**


	16. Chapter 16

Noah:

I touched down in LA; it was time to finally go home. I had been away for almost a year and a half, it was summer now and only a few months until Lee and Elle became seniors. I had been able to graduate and start a course at a university in London, so I could continue to live with Liv who had been able to make London her base. I had rarely contacted my parents and brother, I found that I didn't have anything to say, a simple text that went along the lines of telling them I was ok was sufficient. That means that I also hadn't told them about the massive life-changing event that happened almost 6 months ago. I couldn't tell them over the phone, that's why I had decided to come back to LA, to tell my family and finally get things in order to move back.

I walked out the airport with all the luggage that came with a transatlantic flight. I noticed the driver I had hired to take me to Olivia's home in Beverly Hills. The driver loaded the bags into the trunk while I securely placed my precious cargo in the backseat.

~#~#~#~

We arrived at the house that had been left abruptly almost 2 years ago. The maintenance people that were hired had still done their jobs, so the house looked lived in from the outside. I helped unload the car and soon I found myself alone in Olivia's house, well not completely alone but alone in the sense I had no-one to talk to. I had to get back to my duty of protecting and caring for the precious cargo that was brought into the house first.

Once I had sorted myself out and put things away, I decided it was time go to my childhood home, the home that still housed my parents, brother and probably Elle. I sent a quick text to my mom to let her know I was coming before I loaded up the silver Jeep in the garage and headed 10 minutes down the road to my old home.

~#~#~#~

I pulled up the driveway and parked outside the garage. I killed the engine and then took the surprise for my family out the back.

I walked into the house, it was all quiet, I placed the surprise on the floor for a second while I looked around the corner. There I saw my parents, Lee, Rachel, who my mom had told me had been dating Lee since shortly after I left, Elle and a guy I didn't recognise. I walked further into the room and they all noticed me. My mom ran over to me, hugging and kissing my check, she whispered to me that she had missed me so much. The rest of my family followed suit soon after. The guy stood near Elle didn't move, he seemed like he wanted to take a punch at me any second, I thought I'd better get to the reason why I was here quick before an argument ensued in my house. I walked over to the guy and stretched out my hand "Hi, I'm Noah."

He shook my hand, while still being a little stand-offish "Ben, I'm Elle's boyfriend." I felt like he added that in to be petty. I also saw Elle rolling her eyes and placing her hand on his arm, an attempt to make him more at ease that looked like it worked.

"Ok … Ben, nice to meet you." I walked back to be the entrance of the room, so I was facing everyone. "I have someone I'd like you all to meet, I'll be back in a second." I said before turning quickly to retrieve my surprise.

I carefully undid the straps and picked up what I'd brought all the way from London. I placed it comfortably in my arms before walking back around the corner. As soon as I came into view I saw the look of utter shock on everyone's faces. "Mom, Dad, Lee, Elle" I said only including those who were family to me, I didn't know Rachel or Ben enough. "Meet Grace Keira Flynn." I said while holding my 6-month-old blue eyes, brown haired baby girl.

* * *

 **A/N: That's the end of this part of the book! The sequel should be out soon so keep an eye out. I hoped you like it so far! x**


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